The Fourth Department determined the evidence of causation in this asbestos exposure case was sufficient to support the plaintiffs’ verdict and the motion to set aside was properly denied:
Although, to prove specific causation, plaintiff and decedent were required to establish that decedent “was exposed to sufficient levels of the toxin to cause” his alleged injuries, “it is not always necessary for a plaintiff to quantify exposure levels precisely or use the dose-response relationship” … . There simply “must be evidence from which the factfinder can conclude that the plaintiff was exposed to levels of [the] agent that are known to cause the kind of harm that the plaintiff claims to have suffered” … . Such evidence may include an expert’s use of estimates generated by mathematical models taking a plaintiff’s work history into account, or the use of “more qualitative means” to determine the level of a plaintiff’s exposure, such as comparing the plaintiff’s exposure level “to the exposure levels of subjects of other studies” … . Matter of Eighth Jud. Dist. Asbestos Litig., 2020 NY Slip Op 05621, Fourth Dept 10-9-20