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On February 26, 2021, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) clarified the standard to be used for factual causation in multiple defendant tort actions. The SJC’s opinion in
Doull v. Foster, 487 Mass. 1 (2021), changed the standard for factual causation from the confusing “substantial contributing factor” test to the more straightforward “but for” causation standard.
The SJC differentiated cases with multiple sufficient causes, such as asbestos and other toxic tort matters, due to the difficulty in establishing “which particular exposures were necessary to bring about the harm.” [
Doull at p. 14]. The Court did, however, leave open the possibility that it may also replace the “substantial factor” test in those cases as well. This potential for a new causation standard has created tremendous uncertainty as to which standard will be used for toxic tort cases in Massachusetts going forward.
Kafker
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – Deciding whether something was a “substantial factor” in causing harm, a favorite method of plaintiffs lawyers, is too confusing, the Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled.
Justice Scott Kafker and his colleagues ruled Feb. 26 to instead instruct courts to use the “but-for” test for causation in negligence lawsuits, rejecting pleas by medical malpractice lawyers in a lawsuit that resulted in a defense verdict.
The case drew the attention of both the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys and the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association. The plaintiffs in it argued negligent treatment, including the use of a progesterone cream blamed for blood clots, led to a pulmonary embolism that killed Laura Doull, but the jury found that negligence was not a cause of it.
Massachusetts' top court on Friday abolished an "unnecessarily confusing" alternative standard used by juries to determine whether a health care provider caused a patient's injury, and ruled that because a jury was instructed using the traditional standard a new trial was not warranted in a suit over a patient's death.