Today’s post is another guest post from Kevin Hara, of Reed Smith, who is on his way to becoming a semi-regular blog contributor. This post is about forum non conveniens, which is more discretionary, and less enforceable than personal jurisdiction as a limitation on plaintiff-side (or even defense-side) forum shopping, but which, as
Literally for decades plaintiffs in mass torts have employed the business model of flooding jurisdictions seen as friendly to them with more solicited plaintiffs than any court system can possibly handle. They have employed every forum-shopping trick in the book to trap defendants in these jurisdictions, which usually have no relationship to any party. After
Once the Supreme Court’s decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017), definitively determined that non-resident plaintiffs can’t go suing non-resident defendants anywhere they want, attention turned to one of the primary types of forum-shopping gamesmanship that plaintiffs used to trap defendants in their preferred venues.
St. Louis –
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
In our post earlier this week “No Causation, No ‘Parallel Claim’” we examined the enormous causation hurdle plaintiffs face in trying to prove a Stengel or Hughes type failure to warn claim in those jurisdictions where such a claim has been found
The beast part may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it serves the purpose of depicting what at least on the surface are two very opposite things. But if you delve more deeply, you find a lot of similarities. So many similarities that the two things shouldn’t really be opposites at all. That’s what
This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
There is always a level of uncertainty when a case gets remanded from an MDL. New judge; new interpretations of prior rulings; new rulings. It can be the cause of much anxiety on both sides. And the biggest question is – what’s left to
Next week, we are traveling to Budapest, with a side trip to Vienna. We are visiting the Drug and Device Law Rock Climber, who is spending this semester abroad studying computer science (in Budapest) and climbing rocks (in Majorca, etc.). Aside from the beloved visage of our only child, we are most excited about seeing
Last September we expressed our curiosity over Wisconsin cheese curd and our distaste for an order from the Western District of Wisconsin rejecting implied preemption in an amiodarone case. As we explained then, the district court allowed a claim alleging that the defendants failed to provide medication guides for distribution with amiodarone prescriptions.
We (in its blog-specific singular version) are longstanding country music fans. There is backstory – call us when you are in Philadelphia and we will tell you about it over coffee. Suffice it to say that Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry, and country greats from the 1970’s and 1980’s occupy a significant and permanent place in our soul. So we were moved by a new video making the rounds of social media today. Entitled “Forever Country,” it is features 30 Country Music Association Award winners – both modern and legendary – in a beautiful montage celebrating 50 years of the CMA awards. You can see it here. There is also some pretty cool irony in the choice of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as the song that opens the video and winds its way throughout. In 1975, John Denver was nominated as Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year. The previous year’s winner, Charlie Rich, was a bit “in his cups,” as they say, when he read the nominations. As he announced Denver as the winner, he struck a match and lit the card on fire in protest, because he did not think Denver was truly “country.” Happy to debate that when we have coffee, but we (unashamedly) love John Denver, as our office neighbors will attest. We are happy that Denver’s signature song was used in this celebration of country music. If it wins him some new fans, better late than never.
Also better late than never to report on today’s case, which just appeared online though it was decided 2 ½ years ago. In Peterson v. Wright Medical Technology, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 189473 (C.D. Ill. Feb. 13, 2014), the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois considered the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s failure-to-warn claim in a hip implant case. The plaintiff, who was obese, received a new modular artificial hip to address his “significant end stage osteoarthritis” caused by an earlier accident. At the time of the plaintiff’s hip implant, his surgeon “had been an orthopedic surgeon for 31 years and had seen many evolutions of hip implants. He had read several journal articles about modular implants, including the [subject implant].” He had also read the Instructions for Use (“IFU”) included with the implant. He “knew that a patient’s weight and activity level could have an effect on the ultimate outcome of the surgery but had no reason to believe that Plaintiff was not an appropriate candidate for the implantation of this device.” The surgeon explained all of these risks to the plaintiff and required him to attend a two-hour teaching session before obtaining his informed consent. Peterson, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 189743 at *3-4.
Two years after the plaintiff’s surgery, the titanium modular neck of his artificial hip broke into two pieces. In his complaint, the plaintiff asserted the usual strict liability and negligence claims, along with a punitive damages claim that was later dropped. The defendant moved for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s warnings claims sounding in both strict liability and negligence.
While some of us are naturally jacked up—have you seen Bexis in short sleeves?—others turn to supplements to build up their beach bodies. We are not talking about the injectables favored by 1970s East German Olympians or 1980s NFL draft flops. And certainly not the supplements advertised on late night television as more targeted enhancers.