We write today from a room in a rehabilitation facility, where we just shared the Drug and Device Law Dowager Countess’s lunch. The Countess, nearly 88, plunged down a flight of eight concrete stairs 12 days ago and managed to emerge with three broken ribs (one in two places) and no other injuries. A painful
New York
New York Court of Appeals Holds that Plaintiff Did Not Prove Causation in Talc/Asbestos Mesothelioma Case
What’s In a Name?
“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” William Shakespeare uses this line in his play Romeo and Juliet to convey that the naming of things is irrelevant. We may not always agree with that (for instance, this blogger is Washington Football Fan – enough said). But when…
SDNY Dismisses Most of a Pelvic Mesh Lawsuit
It’s time for the Mesh Case of the Week. In Dupere v. Ethicon, Inc., 2022 WL 523604 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2022), the plaintiff filed a lawsuit claiming injuries from pelvic mesh that had been implanted in her to treat stress urinary incontinence. The court ended up dismissing many of the causes of action. That…
Rouviere, Rambo & Reconsideration
Developments in the Rouviere v. DePuy litigation have already produced two of our blogposts. Rouviere v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., 471 F. Supp.3d 571 (S.D.N.Y. 2020), which we discussed here, produced one of the first major decisions of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote depositions as the “new normal.” Then, Rouviere v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.…
New York Consumer Fraud Case Tossed as Improper Private FDCA Cause of Action
We venture a bit outside our normal drug/medical device arena today for a case involving dietary supplements, but you know we cannot resist a case shot down as an attempt to pursue a private FDCA cause of action. It’s a bit like the refrain to The Christmas Song – “although it’s been said many times,…
New York Rejects General Jurisdiction by Consent to Service
Today’s decision strays from the field of prescription drug/device law, but we take this detour because Aybar v. Aybar, 2021 N.Y. LEXIS 2134 (N.Y. Ct. App. Oct. 7, 2021) is an important jurisdictional decision – one with over 100 years of legal precedent to sort out.
Plaintiffs were involved in an automobile accident in…
Prescription Drugs and Class Actions Do Not Mix
Some things were never meant to go together. Oil and water. Ice cream and ketchup. Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort (although fans of the books will quickly point out that Boy Who Lived was actually linked inextricably to his arch enemy). Picnics and honey bees. Elected officials and the power to borrow money. You get…
SDNY Dismisses Hernia Mesh Claims
Covid has altered how and where we practice law. Along the way, it has also improved our exercise regimen. Every couple of days, we receive bankers boxes of binders and documents and then tote them upstairs to what passes for our home office.
For some reason, that makes us think of hernia mesh litigation.
Cosh…
New York Recognizes Some Cross-Jurisdictional Class Action Tolling
We don’t like class action tolling. We don’t think that plaintiffs should be rewarded for filing a meritless class action (or any other meritless act) with a potentially broad and lengthy exemption from the relevant statute of limitations. We particularly don’t like cross-jurisdictional class action tolling, which makes a state’s enforcement of its own statute…