The Next Threshold in Medical Monitoring

Denis Binder, Chapman University

Abstract

Tobacco litigation has been with us for 6 ½ decades. The related field of Toxic Torts is 3 decades old. Both have common and overlapping issues of causation, damages, discovery, and theories of relief, but with the exception of a few cases involving asbestos and tobacco, they have generally existed in parallel legal universes. A recent Massachusetts opinion, Donovan v. Philip Morris USA, Inc. has finally woven them together in a novel case applying the Toxic Torts remedy of medical monitoring for sub-clinical injuries in a tobacco case.