Ohio Court Affirms Trial Court Order Denying Attempts to Throw out Lung Cancer Case for Lack of Prima Facie Evidence

CLEVELAND –– An Ohio appellate court has affirmed an order denying Union Carbide’s request to administratively dismiss an asbestos lung cancer suit for failure to submit prima facie evidence, ruling that the neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants are “required to use competent medical authority to prove a person’s smoking status.”

In the Nov. 17 opinion, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Eighth Appellate District, Cuyahoga County, further opined that the question of whether a plaintiff is a smoker is a factual determination, not a medical determination.

“…[T]he determination of whether the plaintiff is a smoker is a threshold …