The First Circuit  has affirmed a district court ruling rejecting a proposed class action seeking medical monitoring  for alleged exposure to hazardous beryllium.  See Barry Genereux, et al. v. Raytheon Company, No. 13-1921 (1st Cir. 6/10/14).

MassTortDefense has posted on medical monitoring several times before, incuding here and here. The clear trend has been away from recognizing these claims, see Lowe v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 344 Or. 403, 183 P.3d 181 (2008), or to narrow their scope. See Sinclair v. Merck & Co., 195 N.J. 51, 948 A.2d 587 (2008).

Where recognized, medical monitoring plaintiffs typically must prove:
1. exposure greater than normal background levels;
2. to a proven hazardous substance;
3. caused by the defendant’s negligence;
4. as a proximate result of the exposure, plaintiff has a significantly increased risk of contracting a serious latent disease;
5. a monitoring procedure exists that makes the early detection of the disease possible;
6. the prescribed monitoring regime is different from that normally recommended in the absence of the exposure; and
7. the prescribed monitoring regime is reasonably necessary according to contemporary scientific principles.

The plaintiffs in this case filed a putative class action filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, invoking federal diversity jurisdiction under the special jurisdictional provisions of the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(2). Their complaint alleged that the defendant, Raytheon Company, endangered the health of the plaintiffs and others similarly situated by negligently exposing them to beryllium used in the manufacturing process at its plant in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Beryllium is a useful but potentially hazardous substance, and sufficient exposure to it is a risk factor for a malady known as Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD). This malady is characterized by inflammation and scarring of lung tissue. Although there is no known cure for CBD, early detection and treatment can ameliorate its impact. The pathogenesis of CBD may begin with beryllium sensitization (BeS). Even though BeS is regarded as an abnormal medical finding, it can be asymptomatic and is typically not treated. Plaintiffs argued that persons with BeS should receive periodic clinical screenings to detect actual disease onset because those persons who are diagnosed with BeS are allegedly at a risk of developing CBD during their lifetimes.

The plaintiffs sought to represent two proposed classes. One comprised all persons who worked at the Waltham plant for at least one month prior to 1997. The other comprised all persons who lived with members of the first class and thus were subject to alleged take-home beryllium exposure. Persons already diagnosed as having CBD were excluded from both proposed classes. Following extensive pretrial discovery and work devoted to a narrowing of the issues, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Raytheon. See Genereux v. Hardric Labs., Inc., 950 F.Supp.2d 329, 341 (D. Mass. 2013). An appeal ensued.

The Court of Appeals noted that the cornerstone of an action for medical monitoring under Massachusetts law is the decision in Donovan v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 914 N.E.2d 891 (Mass. 2009). There, the court ruled that the cost of medical monitoring may be recoverable in a tort suit under Massachusetts law under certain circumstances.  The First Circuit read the Donovan decision as tethering its holding to a doctrinal mooring: a combination of a defendant’s alleged failure to meet an appropriate standard of care, a clear causal connection between that failure and the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries, and resulting damages. To identify the injury in the absence of evidence that a plaintiff actually has a full-blown disease, the court demanded a showing that some subcellular or other physiological change has put plaintiffs at increased risk. The court noted that under the unique cause of action recognized in Donovan, increased epidemiological risk of illness caused by exposure, unaccompanied by some subcellular or other physiological change, is not enough to permit recovery in tort.

Here, the summary judgment record disclosed no evidence that any plaintiff — named or unnamed, employee class or take-home class — had as yet developed BeS. This gap in the proof was fatal to the plaintiffs’ principal theory of liability. The plaintiffs had not carried their burden that under Massachusetts law that defines actionable injury in the medical monitoring milieu in terms of subcellular or other physiological change; the record revealed no significantly probative evidence of such an injury here.

In the alternative, the plaintiffs argued that the Massachusetts high court had speculated about whether a cause of action for medical monitoring might ever exist when no subclinical changes had occurred.  The trial court concluded that plaintiffs hadn’t preserved a claim under this alternative theory.  The court of appeals agreed.  In complex cases, considerations of both fairness and efficiency dictate that a trial judge use his best efforts to winnow and clarify the issues.Plaintiffs’ counsel had multiple opportunities to expound a new theory of the case that encompassed this issue.  A status conference transcript where the issue was raised was transparently clear: the plaintiffs told the court that they were not pursuing a theory based on any question that the SJC had allegedly left for another day.

Decision Affirmed.