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Boston Scientific Wants 4 New Trials After $27M Verdict
Oct 13, 2016 | Law 360
By Cara Salvatore
Boston Scientific asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to overturn a $27 million jury verdict for four women allegedly harmed by its pelvic mesh, the latest sally against the practice of grouping plaintiffs for trial in massive multidistrict litigation.
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Boston Scientific Wants 4 New Trials After $27M Verdict
Oct 13, 2016 | Law 360
By Cara Salvatore
Law360, New York (October 13, 2016, 5:55 PM EDT) -- Boston Scientific asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to overturn a $27 million jury verdict for four women allegedly harmed by its pelvic mesh, the latest sally against the practice of grouping plaintiffs for trial in massive multidistrict litigation.
In November 2014, a Florida federal jury found Boston Scientific was negligent in manufacturing the Pinnacle Pelvic Floor Repair Kit and awarded $6.53 million to plaintiff Mania Nunez, $6.72 million each to Juana Betancourt and Amal Eghnayem and $6.76 million to Margarita Dotres. The jury did not award punitive damages. The women said they experienced infection, organ perforation, nerve damage, blood loss and chronic pelvic pain.
Boston Scientific believes the verdict should be overturned and four new trials ordered.Boston Scientific Wants 4 New Trials After $27M VerdictShare us on: By Cara SalvatoreLaw360, New York (October 13, 2016, 5:55 PM EDT) -- Boston Scientific asked the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday to overturn a $27 million jury verdict for four women allegedly harmed by its pelvic mesh, the latest sally against the practice of grouping plaintiffs for trial in massive multidistrict litigation.
In November 2014, a Florida federal jury found Boston Scientific was negligent in manufacturing the Pinnacle Pelvic Floor Repair Kit and awarded $6.53 million to plaintiff Mania Nunez, $6.72 million each to Juana Betancourt and Amal Eghnayem and $6.76 million to Margarita Dotres. The jury did not award punitive damages. The women said they experienced infection, organ perforation, nerve damage, blood loss and chronic pelvic pain.
Boston Scientific believes the verdict should be overturned and four new trials ordered.
“Any efficiency gained in consolidating four complex products liability cases for a single trial was grossly overwhelmed by the multiple ways in which consolidation unfairly prejudiced defendant and deprived it of a fair trial,” Boston Scientific said in its brief to the Eleventh Circuit.
It said it had argued before trial that “each plaintiff had different complaints, medical histories and treating doctors; was prescribed the Pinnacle at different times for different conditions; and claimed to suffer different injuries, after different times of exposure, resulting in different treatment courses. Instead of saving judicial resources, consolidation would create jury confusion and unfair prejudice.”
But the consolidation remained in force. U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, the West Virginia federal judge in charge of the MDL, traveled down to the Southern District of Florida to preside over the November 2014 trial.
In his April 2014 consolidation order, Judge Goodwin had said that the cases made identical legal claims and that the interest of fairness both for these four women and for the thousands more waiting in the wings demanded consolidation.“All of the plaintiffs allege negligence, design defect, manufacturing defect, failure to warn, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty and punitive damages,” the judge said.
“The more cases that are tried together in this MDL totaling over 11,000 cases, the sooner the parties will come to understand the true nature of these cases, their values, the weaknesses and strengths in their cases and the cost of trying them. At this time, the bellwether process is not viable in this MDL," he said.
Johnson & Johnson and DePuy have also made a battleground out of plaintiff consolidation as they defend against a massive MDL over metal-on-metal artificial hips, whose third bellwether trial, containing six cases, is currently in progress in the Texas courtroom of U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade.
The companies are currently appealing their $150 million loss in the five-case second bellwether, and have told the Fifth Circuit, “The five cases involve highly individualized facts that should have precluded their consolidation in the first place and will require case-specific review on appeal.”
The Boston Scientific plaintiffs are represented by Clark Love Hutson GP, Andrus Wagstaff PC and Babbitt & Johnson PA, among others.
Boston Scientific is represented by Hildy Sastre, Eric Anielak, Matthew Keehan, Jon Strongman and Robert Adams of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, and Lindsey Saad and Michael Bonasso of Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso PLLC.
The appeal is Eghnayem et al. v. BSX, case number 16-11818, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
The MDL is In re: Boston Scientific Corp. Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, case number 2:12-md-02326, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
--Additional reporting by Jess Davis, Kurt Orzeck and Sindhu Sundar. Editing by Mark Lebetkin.http://www.law360.com/articles/851264/boston-scientific-wants-4-new-trials-after-27m-verdict
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