Court Rules for BU, against NHL in CTE Case

BU Today

Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center won a court victory late Wednesday when a US District Court judge in Minnesota denied a request for its records made by the National Hockey League. The NHL sought the records for defense in a lawsuit brought against the league by more than 100 former players  seeking medical benefits, alleging that the NHL should have known about the risks of cognitive illnesses like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The University argued successfully that a requirement to fulfill the request could discourage scientific research.
The NHL last year sought to subpoena documents about the center’s bank of roughly 400 brains and spinal cords of hockey players, other athletes, and nonathletes. The brain bank has enabled the center’s pathbreaking research into CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with dementia and mood changes and found in athletes and others who suffer repeated concussions and head trauma.
In her decision, Judge Susan Nelson called the league’s information request excessively broad. That request covered an array of documents, including those identifying all athletes who donated or have agreed to donate their brains; pathology photographs; all CTE-related discussions, prior to publication, with peer reviewers and others; and autopsies and death certificates. BU countered that the request threatened to invade the privacy of brain donors and their families and argued that compliance might deter future donors from working with the center, chilling its research.
“Given the extraordinary breadth of the NHL’s subpoena, the record demonstrates a significant, overwhelming burden” on BU, the judge wrote. “Even setting aside BU’s valid concerns regarding the potential chilling effect of complying with the subpoena, the sheer effort in physically locating and preparing the requested information is staggering.”
Center director Ann McKee, a School of Medicine professor of neurology and pathology, told the court that the center makes 172,000 photographs of each of its 400 ...

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