Summary Judgment for NexTech on Rite Aid Workers’ Refrigerant Exposure Claims

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two drugstore employees can’t pursue claims of accidental refrigerant gas exposure against the NexTech Northeast LLC refrigeration service company after the court barred their experts’ causation testimony, a federal judge has ruled.

Judge Gerald B. Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia concluded Sept. 11 that neither the causation experts nor the plaintiffs’ treating physicians offered reliable, admissible opinions on the plaintiffs’ levels of exposure or on the toxicity of the refrigerant.

Plaintiffs Deborah Zellers and Carrie E. Hare complained that they suffered exposure to the refrigerant R-404A while working in the …