Los Angeles Partners Dana Alden Fox and Dawn M. Flores-Oster recently secured a significant appellate victory on behalf of Pop Warner Little Scholar's Inc. when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an action alleging that the poor concussion protocols of Lewis Brisbois' client contributed to the deaths of the plaintiffs' sons and other youth football players.

As reported in Law360, the plaintiffs alleged that their sons developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) due to head trauma that occurred during Pop Warner's youth football program. One of these young men ultimately died in a motorcycle crash and the other took his own life. To support their claims, the plaintiffs submitted expert opinions from a psychiatrist and pathologist, both of whom contended that CTE makes individuals more prone to violent and self-destructive behaviors.

The federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of Pop Warner after determining that the plaintiffs' expert opinions failed to establish the necessary connection between the football program, CTE, and the deaths. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed that the plaintiffs failed to establish the element of causation and unanimously affirmed the lower court's dismissal of the action.