HOUSTON - The 14th Court of Appeals today affirmed the dismissal of a silica lawsuit brought against 3M and other companies.
The plaintiff appealed over the trial court’s dismissal of his claims without prejudice for failure to file a statutorily compliant expert report.
The lawsuit was brought by Sean Morris, individually and as representative of the estate of Douglas Morris. Some of the defendants named in the complaint include Pearson Dental Supplies, Zahn Dental Supply, 3M Company, Crosstex International, and GDC Holdings.
According to the 14th Court’s opinion, in July 2019 Sean sued the defendants for the wrongful death of his father, Douglas, who had worked as a “dental molding technician and grinder.” Douglas died in 2017 at the age of 63. Sean alleges that “workplace exposure to silica dust” caused Douglas’s death due to silicosis.
Because Sean asserted a silica related injury, he was required to serve an expert report under Chapter 90 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. About three months after suit was filed, 3M filed a motion to dismiss alleging Sean had failed to provide a statutorily compliant expert report that complied with Chapter 90. By March 2020, after numerous separate motions were filed and set for hearing, some of the other defendants had joined together in filing a single joint motion to dismiss, the opinion states.
A hearing was set for April 2020. The trial court found that “the current papers before the Court are not compliant with the report requirements of Chapter 90 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code” and gave appellant an additional 90 days to comply with the statutory requirements. In early July 2020, Sean filed a new expert report from a new expert. The defendants again filed a motion to dismiss. The trial court sustained all of the defendants’ objections to the expert report and granted their original and supplemental motions to dismiss, the opinion states.
The majority of justices found that they cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that Sean failed to provide a statutorily compliant expert report.
“We further conclude that appellant has failed to establish a violation of the open courts guarantee within the Texas Constitution,” the opinion states. “We affirm the judgment of the trial court.”
Case No. 14-20-00639-CV