Summary Judgment in Diacetyl Case After Judge Rejects Causation Experts

SPOKANE, Wash. - A federal judge has awarded summary judgment to the manufacturer of the popcorn additive diacetyl on claims by a consumer that routine ingestion of the product caused him to develop the respiratory illness bronchiolitis obliterans. Newkirk, et ux. v. Conagra Foods Inc., No. CV-08-273-RMP (E.D. Wash.).

Judge Rosanna M. Peterson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington granted defendant Conagra Foods Inc.'s motion on June 25 after excluding expert testimony on specific and general causation, leaving plaintiff Larry I. Newkirk with no support for his claim.

Those rulings came after a Daubert hearing. …