If the pelvic mesh litigation ever ends, the tongue of history will tell a tale of specious plaintiff theories that hoodwinked judges and juries into condemning good products. Plaintiffs extracted millions of dollars and erased product lines by cobbling together irrelevant workplace material handling sheets, counterfactual stories in which the FDA does not exist, and
Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Private Employer Vaccine Mandate
In Hayes v. University Health Shreveport, LLC, 2022 WL 71607 (La. Jan. 7, 2022), the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that a hospital – or any other private employer – may impose an absolute vaccination requirement and fire any employee who fails to comply. The case involved medical centers that notified all employees that they
Michigan Appellate Court Won’t Force Hospital to Administer Ivermectin to Covid Patient
Some of our posts about challenges to Covid-19 vaccines or treatments might have been a bit … strident. It is hard to be otherwise when the cases involve such high stakes and so little merit.
But this time we will try to take our cue from the court in Frey v. Trinity Health-Michigan, 2021
D. Maryland Dismisses Pelvic Mesh Design Defect and Failure to Warn Claims
Multidistrict litigations are big piles of wrong. Wrong incentives invite the wrong cases, the wrong rulings, and the wrong results. Plaintiff lawyers park weak cases in MDLs, counting on ultimately collecting money for cases into which they invested virtually no work. Courts encourage that dysfunctional conduct by doing everything possible to force settlements, even if
Pennsy Supreme Court Applies In Pari Delicto to Block Fentanyl Wrongful Death Action
Santa dropped off an early Christmas present. It was not crafted by elves. It was drafted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (five of its seven members, anyway), and it is so good that it is a last minute addition to our Ten Best list, which will arrive anon.
In Albert v. Sheeley’s Drug Store, Inc.
How Stupid are Legal Arguments Challenging Employee Vaccine Mandates? Very, Very Stupid
Now in this Winter of Covid discontent, made inglorious by the silliness and selfishness of anti-vaxxers, we warm ourselves with a look back at how a court dismantled the absurd arguments challenging vaccine mandates. Sure, we have written about similar cases a lot lately – here for example. “Yet once more, O ye laurels, and
SDNY Dismisses False Claims Act Complaint Challenging FDA Approval of Manufacturing Plant
The defense response to so many plaintiff allegations amounts to: so what? What difference did the complained of conduct make? Think of medical causation. Or think of warning causation in the context of a learned intermediary. In securities cases or, closer to our DDL hearts, False Claims Act cases, the ‘so what’ arrives dressed in
W.D. Texas Dismissal of Peyronie’s Disease Claims in Johnson Case
It has been a while since we’ve written about a case delivering a one-two punch against a plaintiff suing both brand and generic drug manufacturers for alleged injuries from ingesting generic drugs. Punch One is rejection of the claims against the brand manufacturers because they did not make or sell the products at issue in
New Mexico Rejects Corporate Registration as Basis for Personal Jurisdiction
New Mexico calls itself the Land of Enchantment, and with good reason. Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands National Monument, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, the ski slopes of Taos, and Chaco Culture National Historic Park are all splendid visual treasures. A green chili burger is a lovely work of art. And there is a reason all that
Kentucky Federal Court Dismisses Pelvic Mesh Case for Lack of Warning Causation and Lack of Safer, Feasible Alternative
If drugs and medical devices undergo a product life cycle, so do drug and medical device litigations. We are currently laboring in the relatively early stage of a Multidistrict Litigation, where the court seems terrified of making any substantive decisions. We get no rulings. Rather, the parties are forced to listen to lectures about the