A recent case, Koger v. Synthes North America, Inc., 2009 WL 5110780 (D. Conn. 2009), underscores what should be a simple fact of life in product liability litigation involving orthopedic implants in particular, and implanted medical devices in general – plaintiffs shouldn’t expect to get anywhere with nothing more than a broken device.
That’s
Don’t look now, but things have gotten a bit weird for Third-Party Payor (TPP) lawsuits in the District of Minnesota. It all started way back in 2006: Judge James Rosenbaum, presiding over the Medtronic Implantable Defibrillators MDL, denied a motion to dismiss a bevy of state-law claims brought by TPPs, including the usual litany of
Plaintiffs usually allege that decisions regarding marketing, distributing and selling a drug or device – as well as interactions with the FDA – were made by the manufacturer at the corporate level. Of course, they argue that these corporate decisions then impacted the prescribers and plaintiffs at their home locales. As lawyers who defend mass torts,
Last week we surprised even ourselves by including Judge Weinstein’s December 1 Zyprexa decision as one of top ten best decisions of 2009. That opinion concluded, albeit reluctantly, that Mississippi’s claims could not be adjudicated on a mass basis. Even Judge Weinstein acknowledges that sometimes (we would say more than sometimes) issues of causation, injury,
Good tidings and great cheer. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kool Kwanzaa, Super Solstice – whatever holiday you’re celebrating. What is there to celebrate? Well, for the moment we can all celebrate our top ten favorite drug and medical device decisions of 2009. While we don’t have a Supreme Court star at the top or our
The fourth and final installment of the great Bloggers versus Burbank debate over whether Congress should act to nullify the Supreme Court Twombly/Iqbal pleading decisions has been posted at PENNumbra. That would be Prof. Burbank’s closing argument – or should we say closing shots – because he says we “set[] up and
Defendants went two for two sending forum-shopping non-resident plaintiffs back where they came from in New York this week. First, the Second Circuit, in a summary order, told bunch of Austrian plaintiffs from a ski train fire to take their lawsuits back across the Atlantic. Ferk v. Omniglow Corp., slip op. (2d Cir. Dec. 21,
The endless see-saw that is the battle to impose reason on California consumer fraud class actions, just took a “see” (or is that a “saw”) in the direction of the good guys. Last week, in a to-be-published opinion, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of class certification for Vioxx-related consumer and third party
What is going on in Nuvaring? Defendant first moved against Plaintiffs’ “master” complaint. Plaintiffs withdrew it. Then it moved against Plaintiffs’ individual complaints (all 200+ of them). Now the court won’t hear those either. No wonder our eyebrows go up a little more with each ruling. (Here, here, and here). At
The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the unusual class Baycol class certification in the De Bouse case late last week. Here’s a link to the opinion (also at 2009 WL 4843362). It’s yet another of those class actions that we call “strike suits” because (1) there’s no personal injury at all – only a