You have undoubtedly heard about the lawsuit that was filed that claims that Starbursts are too chewy and caused an injury to a woman’s mouth. The plaintiff’s lawyer is Brian Muawad from St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He and his brother hold themselves out as competent in " Personal Injury, Auto…
Vioxx is back in the news. Merck won one and lost one in New Jersey and is on trial in Illinois. In New Jersey, the jury condemned the pre- April 2002 label but approved the label issued that month. The verdict was under New Jersey’s consumer law fraud, which has…
Merck won another Vioxx case in federal court, but when you hear the background of the plaintiff it is easy to understand why. According to an AP report posted on Law.com, the plaintiff "had other risk factors for his heart attack, including tobacco use, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes…
Philadephia Federal District Judge Stewart Dalzell has rejected Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp.’s claim that the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations preempt state failure-to-warn tort claims. In an opinion issued in the Perry v. Novaritis Pharma Corp., NO. 05-5350 (USDC, ED PA October 17, 2006), Judge Dalzell rejected…
Donald Matthews fell off a "loft" bed (similar to a bunk bed) and hurt his shoulder. He sued the manufacturer of the bed, saying that he should have been warned about the risk of falling. Oh yeah, by the way, he was a senior. In college. (His GPA at the…
Judge Fallon has thrown out the $50M compensatory damage award and a $1M punitive damage award in the recent New Orleans Vioxx trial. He ordered a new trial on damages. No surprise here. The compensatory award obviously had a significant punitive component. Here is the Order.
Hmm. Summary judgment for a drug manufacturer is reversed? In the 21st Century? In Federal Court? Now, that is something worth writing about. In McNeil v. Wyeth, No. 05-10509 (August 22, 2006) the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals faced an appeal after summary judgment was granted in favor of the manufacturer…
Another day, another article about problems in the human tissue industry. This time it is Donor Referral Services of Raleigh, N.C., a company run by a man named Philip Guyett. This North Carolina firm in the business of body part brokering allegedly used an unsterile embalming room to get usable tissue. The…
Merck got hammered twice yesterday, first in New Orleans and then in New Jersey. In New Orleans, a federal court jury ordered Merck to pay $51 M to a retired FBI agent who suffered a heart attack after taking Vioxx for three years. The case was a "must win" for…
Law.com has posted an interesting article about destructive testing in products liability actions. The article was written by Michael Hoenig and was originally published in the New York Law Journal. The article discussed the recent case of Mirchandani v. Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc., 235 FRD 611 (D. Md. 2006), in…