Product Liability

December 15, 2008

Family Sues Disney Over Defective Product Death

The family of a child who died in a Winnie the Pooh bassinet has sued the Walt Disney Co., alleging the company allowed sales of the bassinets despite a flawed design that had been linked to another baby’s death.

The bassinet had a drop-down side for easy access, but the design created a gap where babies could slide through and hang to death. The child was 6 months old when she was strangled.

Shortly after the child’s death, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission directed retailers to stop selling the bassinets, which were manufactured by Simplicity Inc. Disney’s consumer products division licensed its Winnie the Pooh name and image to Simplicity.

The suit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, raises questions about a common practice in the nursery products industry: Are companies that license their names and characters to other manufacturers responsible when those products turn out to be deadly?

December 13, 2008

Texas Court Orders New Vioxx Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Merck is considering an appeal after a Texas state appeals court reversed its own prior dismissal of a $7.75 M judgment in a Vioxx personal injury lawsuit against the drugmaker.

A three-judge panel of the Texas 4th Court of Appeals ruled there should be a new trial in the case. The plaintiff, a longtime smoker with a history of heart disease, died of a heart attack in 2001 after taking Vioxx briefly.

The three judges sent the case back to the original trial court, where a jury in 2006 had awarded $32 million to the man’s widow. That amount was cut to about $7.75 million under a Texas law limiting damages.

December 7, 2008

Medtronic Lawsuit Over Spinal Implant

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said it did not encourage the unapproved use of its spinal implant, which a new lawsuit is blaming for the death of a California woman.

The lawsuit, filed by the woman’s family in Los Angeles, said her death was caused by use of the Infuse spinal graft in her neck. The device is approved only for use in lower-back surgery and some oral and dental procedures.

The woman’s surgery took place in August, a month after the Food and Drug Administration warned that use of Infuse for neck surgeries had led to problems swallowing, breathing and speaking.

November 22, 2008

PAGCL and Shoulder Pain Pump Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The use of intra-articular pumps, to deliver medication to the shoulder following arthroscopic shoulder surgery has been linked to the development of a painful and debilitating condition which causes the loss of cartilage in the shoulder.

The medical condition, is known as Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis, PAGCL, and has no consistently successful treatment and often results in permanent shoulder pain.

STATUS OF SHOULDER PAIN PUMP LITIGATION: Lawsuits are currently pending and potential cases are still being reviewed by Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm.

Motions have been filed to consolidate all Federal shoulder pain pump lawsuits and transfer the cases to one court for pre-trial proceedings.

November 20, 2008

Roche Loses $12.9 M Three-Case Accutane Verdict

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Roche Holding AG must pay $12.9 million to plaintiffs who blamed the Accutane acne medicine for their inflammatory bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled, handing the company its fourth trial loss in the case.

Roche didn’t give proper warnings to doctors for three Florida residents about the risks of Accutane, which was a substantial factor in their illness, a state court jury found yesterday in Atlantic City. The judge combined three lawsuits into one trial. With three earlier losses for individuals, Roche has now lost jury verdicts involving six plaintiffs.

November 17, 2008

Paxil Test Case Fails Statute of Limitations

by Dr. Shezad Malik

One of Philadelphia’s bellwether cases in litigation over whether the maker of the drug Paxil failed to warn about an increased risk of suicide from its drug has been dismissed following a Common Pleas Court judge’s decision to grant summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds.

Collins v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline survived summary judgment in March when defendant GlaxoSmithKline argued that the doctrine of federal pre-emption precluded the plaintiffs from pursuing their state products liability claim.

While Judge Tereshko, coordinating judge of the Complex Litigation Center, denied summary judgment on the grounds of federal pre-emption in March, Tereshko granted summary judgment on the grounds regarding Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.

The judge’s order dismissed all of plaintiffs claims of wrongful death, survival, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, strict liability under the Maryland Products Liability Act, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, loss of consortium and punitive damages.

November 16, 2008

J&J Units Must Pay $16.6 Million for Fentanyl Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two units of Johnson & Johnson must pay $16.6 million to the family of a Chicago-area woman who died after using a Duragesic pain-patch, a state jury found, dealing the company its fourth defeat in as many trials since 2006.

The woman aged 38, died in February 2004 because the patch she was wearing delivered a fatal dose of the narcotic fentanyl, the device’s main ingredient.

The Duragesic-brand patch is made by Alza Corp., a Mountain View, California, company owned by New Brunswick, New Jersey- based Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of medical devices. The product was distributed by another Johnson & Johnson unit, Janssen Pharmaceutica. The jury deliberated for less than two days.

November 14, 2008

Consumer Product Safety Commission Investigates Rhino UTV

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Yamaha Rhino, was a hit in the off-road-vehicle market, promising to go “almost anywhere” with an “amazingly high level of comfort and ease.” Now, federal safety regulators are investigating the vehicle following reports of some 30 deaths involving it, including those of two young girls last month.

Yamaha faces more than 200 lawsuits in state and federal courts, many alleging the Rhino’s design is unsafe. Yamaha has settled some but recently beefed up its defense and says it may start to fight rather than settle.

Yamaha stands behind the design of the Rhino, a two-seat vehicle that looks a little like a cross between a golf cart and all-terrain vehicle. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said its investigation of the utility terrain vehicle, or UTV, was prompted by the number of accident reports and the lawsuits.

Many injury claims, Yamaha said, result from improper operation, modifications such as removing the protective “roll cage,” or failure to use a helmet and seat belt.

Read earlier post.

October 31, 2008

Fen-Phen $3M NJ Verdict

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Wyeth, which set aside more than $21 billion to resolve lawsuits over the fen-phen diet combination, must pay $3 million to a woman who contracted a lung-destroying disease from the drugs.

The New Jersey jurors deliberated about two hours before finding that Wyeth’s Pondimin drug was a cause of the woman’s primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). The trial loss was Wyeth’s first in four years in a case involving the often-fatal illness.

The ruling comes as the New Jersey-based Wyeth seeks to wrap up more than a decade of litigation over fen-phen, which combined the company’s Pondimin and Redux with the generic phentermine. This medication combination was taken by patients as a weight reduction method to suppress their appetites.

October 26, 2008

Elevator Failure Led to Student’s Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A college freshman was killed in a dormitory elevator accident two years ago at Ohio State University.

Ohio State has taken safety measures, such as installing video cameras in all its high-rise elevators this year, in case someone gets trapped and as a way to help identify causes of mechanical malfunctions.

One other student (Morris) was in the elevator when the freshman was crushed between the ceiling of the elevator and the third-floor lobby. The fatally injured student was trying to get off the overloaded elevator when it unexpectedly descended with its doors open.