CORAZZA v. Caterpillar, Inc., Defendant–Appellant. (2019)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Martin Shulman, J.), entered October 12, 2017, awarding plaintiff the aggregate amount of $ 1,791,772.56 as against defendant Caterpillar, Inc., unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the judgment vacated, and the complaint dismissed.  The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly.

Plaintiff failed to establish “some scientific basis for a finding of causation attributable to the particular defendant's product” (Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 148 A.D.3d 233, 239, 48 N.Y.S.3d 365 [1st Dept. 2017], affd 32 N.Y.3d 1116, 91 N.Y.S.3d 784, 116 N.E.3d 75 [2018] ).  Although decedent testified that he was exposed to asbestos as a result of his work changing brakes, clutches, and gaskets on defendant's forklifts, as well as on forklifts of other manufacturers, he testified as to defendant only that he worked on its forklifts “[a] lot.”  Decedent provided no context for deciphering the meaning of “a lot.”  In fact, he highlighted that he was not “good at percentages.”  Nor did he offer any other basis for determining the frequency of his exposure to asbestos through his work on defendant's forklifts (compare Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig., 36 Misc.3d 1234[A], 2012 N.Y. Slip Op. 51597[U], *9, 2012 WL 3642303 [Sup. Ct., N.Y. County 2012] [in addition to testimony, the jury verdict against defendant Crane Co. was supported by “evidence that the ships on which plaintiff served contained hundreds of Crane's valves”], affd 121 A.D.3d 230, 990 N.Y.S.2d 174 [1st Dept. 2014];  affd 27 N.Y.3d 765, 37 N.Y.S.3d 723, 59 N.E.3d 458 [2016] ).  Therefore, plaintiff's experts had insufficient foundation for their medical opinions that plaintiff's work with defendant's forklifts was a substantial cause of his lung cancer.