448
Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
for the cost of future medical monitoring. The Court definitively rejects Buckley's first claim by holding that, under the FELA, a railworker may not recover damages for emotional distress unless, and until, he manifests symptoms of a disease. See ante, at 427, 430. As to Buckley's second claim, however, the Court speaks tentatively. "[T]he respondent in this case," we are told, "has not shown that he is legally entitled to recover [medical monitoring] costs." Ante, at 427. "[A]rguably," the Court explains, Buckley demands an "unqualified rule of lump-sum damages recovery," ante, at 444, a rule for which the Court finds "[in]sufficient support in the common law," ibid. The Court pointedly refrains, however, from "express[ing] any view . . . about the extent to which the FELA might, or might not, accommodate medical cost recovery rules more finely tailored than" a "rule of [the] unqualified kind." Ibid. (emphasis in original).
It is not apparent why (or even whether) the Court reverses the Second Circuit's determination on Buckley's second claim. The Court of Appeals held that a medical monitoring claim is solidly grounded, and this Court does not hold otherwise. Hypothesizing that Buckley demands lump-sum damages and nothing else, the Court ruminates on the appropriate remedy without answering the anterior question: Does the plaintiff have a claim for relief? Buckley has shown that Metro-North negligently exposed him to "extremely high levels of asbestos," 79 F. 3d, at 1341, and that this exposure warrants "medical monitoring in order to detect and treat [asbestos-related] diseases as they may arise." Id., at 1346. Buckley's expert medical witness estimated the annual costs of proper monitoring at $950. Ibid.1 We
do not know from the Court's opinion what more a plaintiff must show to qualify for relief.
1 Metro-North, of course, could contest that estimate as excessive. But the amount Buckley may recover is a matter discrete from the question whether he has stated a claim for relief.
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