Federal Judge Throws Out Thousands of Silica Diagnoses

CORPUS CHRISTI � A federal judge has recommended throwing out all but one of about 10,000 diagnoses of the lung ailment silicosis that were used in lawsuits against industrial companies, ruling that doctors "manufactured" findings of the disease in hundreds of cases.

U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack's scathing 249-page opinion, signed Thursday, finds that the diagnoses are inadmissible in court. The bulk of the cases originate in Mississippi, and Jack sent them back to the state courts along with her report. She threw out the approximately 100 Texas cases that she felt she had jurisdiction over.

Jack's ruling also orders sanctions against Houston law firm O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle, which brought roughly 2,000 of the suits. Lawyers from the firm did not immediately return a call for comment today.

Details here from the Houston Chronicle.