Lawsuit Over Cellphones and Cancer Hits a Stumbling Block
October 20 2016 - 3:40PM
Dow Jones News
An appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday dealt a
setback to a long-running lawsuit against the wireless industry
over health concerns surrounding cellphones, deciding that a
different legal standard for evidence should have been applied.
The decision by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals will
further prolong the litigation, initially filed in 2001, as
plaintiffs must now produce arguments on why previously submitted
evidence should continue to be included under the new standard.
Jeffrey Morganroth, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said they wouldn't
back down, and that the ruling may even help get new testimony
included.
The lawsuit, Murray v. Motorola, has been combined with more
than a dozen other cases involving brain tumors and cellphones.
Defendants include Apple Inc., AT&T Inc., Samsung Electronics
Co. and Verizon Communications Inc. Plaintiffs seek more than $1.9
billion in damages. At least eight plaintiffs have died since the
first case was filed.
In 2014, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ruled
that testimony from five scientists could be admitted to the trial.
Defendants appealed, saying the court should use a different legal
standard to determine whether the testimony should be admitted. On
Thursday, a spokeswoman for the wireless industry trade group CTIA
said the group was pleased by the result.
Rather than rely on a standard known as Frye when admitting
scientific evidence, the court will now begin using a standard
known as Rule 702. The Rule 702 standard gives judges more
discretion over what evidence can be admitted. In recent years,
other courts have also switched to the 702 standard.
The U.S. government has said there's no conclusive evidence that
cellphones cause cancer. But a recent study on rats by the
federally funded National Toxicology Program found a link between
the energy emitted from cellphones and cancer.
Write to Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2016 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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