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Hudjohn v. S&G Machinery Co.6/22/2005
on that required expert testimony."). Consequently, exceptions to that rule of proof appear to have been limited to cases of simple injuries, generally without a substantial possibility of alternative causation. Compare Wheeler v. LaViolette, 129 Or App 57, 877 P2d 665 (1994) (no expert medical testimony regarding causation of knee injury was required where the plaintiff stepped into space left by a missing plank in a dock and promptly sought medical attention for knee pain, and where contemporaneous emergency room report noted a "superficial abrasion" just above the knee), with Myers v. Dunscombe, 64 Or App 722, 669 P2d 388, rev den, 296 Or 236 (1983) (affirming directed verdict where the plaintiff offered no expert opinion that negligently administered dental injection had caused her nerve damage and there was at least one alternative explanation for causation of the plaintiff's injury).
Here, plaintiff's alleged injuries, involving neurological and cognitive impairment, were hardly simple. Nor were the dynamics of toxicological causation so straightforward as a leg plunging through a hole in a dock. Indeed, the only expert medical opinion in this case was that the sort of toxic exposure that plaintiff reported could not have caused the physical and neurological injuries that he claimed. See ___ Or App at ___ n 5 (slip op at 10-11 n 5) (describing Burton's testimony).
We note finally that, even assuming without deciding that the warnings on product labeling could, in some cases, ameliorate deficiencies in expert testimony on causation, this is not such a case. That is so not only because of the complexity of plaintiff's claimed injuries and of the dynamics of causation, but also because the relationship between the content of Deere's warning labels and the nature of plaintiff's claimed injuries was indefinite and variable. For example, while the paint can labeling warned that " eports have associated repeated and prolonged occupational overexposure to solvents with permanent brain and nervous system damage" (emphasis added), none of the labels stated that continuing and permanent neurological damage of the sort that plaintiff claims could result from a single exposure. Further, although plaintiff reported experiencing lightheadedness and nausea, which corresponded to the product warnings, he did not experience the eye and skin irritation that all of the labels uniformly identified as a symptomatic indication of toxic exposure. Nor did any of the labels indicate that nausea and dizziness would continue for weeks, or even years, as plaintiff alleges.
In sum, the relationship between the label warnings and plaintiff's reported injuries was far from clear-cut. Thus, even if, in the abstract, evidence of product warnings could provide the "missing link" of proof of medical/scientific causation, the requisite correspondence was not present here.
Plaintiff failed to proffer legally sufficient evidence that the alleged workplace exposure caused his alleged injuries. Defendants' motion for a directed verdict on that ground should have been granted.
Affirmed.
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