Marpe v. Tonoga, Inc.: limiting Frye hearings and clarifying expert causation standards in New York PFOA toxic-tort litigation

Casemine | December 20, 2026

Read the full article (Casemine)

"The Appellate Division, Third Department’s decision in Marpe v. Tonoga, Inc., 2025 NY Slip Op 07053 (Dec. 18, 2025), is a significant procedural and evidentiary ruling in New York toxic-tort law, and particularly in the burgeoning litigation over perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination in Hoosick Falls and surrounding areas.

The case addresses whether a trial court may require a full-blown evidentiary hearing (a Frye hearing) on the admissibility of plaintiffs’ expert testimony, where the experts’ methodologies are already well established in the scientific and legal community and where their submissions facially satisfy the causation requirements articulated in Parker v. Mobil Oil Corp., 7 NY3d 434 (2006). The Third Department holds that, under such circumstances, ordering a hearing is an abuse of discretion and that the defendant’s motions to preclude the experts and obtain summary judgment should have been denied outright."