Expert must base opinion on generally accepted scientific theory

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In response to Dr. Huber’s motion, Eakins offered a second declaration of Dr. Adams, in which he testified that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the stent manufacturers had issued warnings that patients with hypersensitivity to stainless steel could suffer allergic reactions to the stents. Dr. Huber filed another declaration from an allergist and immunologist who testified that his specialty does not generally accept any causal relationship between placement of such stents and the types of systemic reaction that Eakins suffered.

The trial court granted Dr. Huber’s motion based on Eakins’s failure to meet the Frye test. Eakins appealed.

The Court of Appeals affirmed, noting that under Frye, “[w]e do not evaluate whether the scientific theory is correct, but whether it has achieved general acceptance in the relevant scientific community.” The court also noted, “The Frye test recognizes that judges do not have the expertise to assess the validity of a challenged scientific theory and, therefore, they must defer this judgment to the qualified scientists.” The main rationale for the Frye test is that it ensures the reliability of scientific evidence. “If there is a significant dispute between qualified experts as to the validity of scientific evidence, it may not be admitted” into evidence, the court said.

The Court of Appeals then considered in great detail the medical literature on the subject of stents supposedly causing systemic symptoms due to allergy. The court concluded that the literature on which Dr. Adams relied did not establish expert consensus regarding his causation theory. The Court of Appeals, like the trial court, also noted that none of plaintiff’s own treating physicians had concluded based on reasonable medical certainty that the stents were the cause of her symptoms.

Eakins reaffirms the continuing validity of the Frye test, and of evidentiary challenges to questionable expert testimony, in Washington.