11th Circuit Upholds Stent Defense Verdict

It is always nice to win a case, whether by motion or trial. But just in terms of pure exhilaration, it is hard to beat hearing the jury foreperson announce that, after a hard-fought trial, you win. But note that term "hard-fought." Most trials really are hard. They really are expensive. They really are stressful. The road to even the most resoundingly wonderful verdict probably had a couple of nasty potholes. That was the case with Horrillo v. Cook Inc., 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 21026 (11th Cir. Nov. 23, 2016). Prior to trial, there was at least one Daubert ruling that couldn't have pleased the defense. Also, as reported by our friends in the Abnormal Use blog, there was a learned intermediary ruling that we do not like one bit. But all's well that ends well, right?

In Horrillo, the plaintiff brought a product liability action on behalf of his deceased mother, who had undergone a surgery to clear her renal artery. The surgery went terribly wrong, as the patient sustained a stroke. The opinion also does not tell us whether the plaintiff ever sued the doctor. The surgeon used a stent manufactured by the defendant. That stent was designed for use in bile ducts, but the surgeon used it off-label in this case. That off-label use was apparently not all that uncommon. The plaintiff's legal theories included negligence and negligent failure to warn, strict products liability and strict failure to warn, and breach of warranty. After a nearly four-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff then moved for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or, in the alternative, a new trial. The trial court denied those motions, and the plaintiff appealed to the 11th Circuit. Applying the appropriate standards of review, the 11th Circuit affirmed the trial court's rulings and the defense verdict.

First, the appellate court upheld the trial court's exclusion of evidence that four patients in a post-incident clinical trial of the defendant's renal stent suffered strokes. The court held that such evidence was both irrelevant and prejudicial, and that nothing had occurred during the course of the trial to "open the door" to such evidence being introduced on rebuttal. Clearly, post-incident evidence could not possibly support an allegation that the defendant was on notice of the strokes and should therefor have enhanced the label's warnings. We cannot tell from the opinion whether the plaintiff also argued that the post-incident...

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