Practice Areas
Product Liability
-
February 22, 2012
6th Circ. Snuffs Out Tobacco Settlement Antitrust Case
The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday rejected an antitrust challenge to the industry-shifting 1998 master settlement agreement between states and tobacco companies, ruling that tobacco manufacturer and state attorney general defendants were protected from the now-defunct General Tobacco's claims.
-
February 22, 2012
Fla. Court Overturns Engle Verdict Against Philip Morris
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday overturned a 2009 jury verdict against Philip Morris USA Inc. for a widower whose wife died of lung cancer, in the first appellate reversal of a verdict in a so-called Engle case, the tobacco giant said.
-
February 22, 2012
Pfizer Unit Scores More Time In Ch. 11 For Asbestos Dealings
A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday allowed Pfizer Inc. subsidiary Quigley Co. to stay in Chapter 11 for up to six more months, as the insulation maker continues trying to hammer out a deal with asbestos claimants.
-
February 22, 2012
Nuclear Materials Caused Woman's Breast Cancer: Suit
Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. and Atlantic Richfield Co. were hit with a personal injury suit Wednesday by a Pennsylvania woman claiming that toxic radioactive emissions from two nuclear materials processing facilities they operated gave her breast cancer.
-
February 22, 2012
Separate Asbestos-Related Cancer Suits OK: Pa. Court
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that plaintiffs seeking damages for asbestos-related health problems can file separate lawsuits for distinct cancers they may develop.
-
February 22, 2012
Colony Need Not Defend Insured's Predecessor: 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit found Monday that Colony National Insurance Co. does not owe defense costs to lifting equipment manufacturer Manitex LLC in underlying litigation over a crane accident, finding Manitex did not assume its predecessor-in-interest's tort liability to trigger coverage.
-
February 22, 2012
FDA Agrees To Give BPA Info To Enviros
An environmental group trying to ban bisphenol A from food packaging reached an agreement Friday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to obtain documents that could shed light on the chemical's health effects.
-
February 22, 2012
Manufacturer, Insurers Denied Quick Wins In Asbestos Row
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday refused to award summary judgment to General Refractories Co. or its insurers in a long-running dispute over the insurers’ purported duty to defend the manufacturer against underlying asbestos claims.
-
February 22, 2012
Toxic Fly Ash Used In Golf Course Prompts $2B Suit
Hundreds of Virginia plaintiffs are taking a $2 billion swing at regional power company Dominion, which they accused in two lawsuits filed Tuesday of exposing them to toxic fly ash that was used as fill for a golf course built in the middle of their community.
-
February 22, 2012
Toyota Can't Narrow Shareholder Suit Over Defects
A California federal judge on Tuesday rejected Toyota Motor Corp.’s bid to throw out part of a putative class action alleging the carmaker inflated its stock price by misleading the public about a brake defect.
-
February 22, 2012
2nd Massey Boss Charged In Fatal Mine Explosion
Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
-
February 21, 2012
8 States Probe Abbott's Marketing Of Anti-Seizure Drug
Abbott Laboratories Inc., already facing a U.S. Department of Justice investigation over Depakote, disclosed Tuesday that the attorneys general of eight states are investigating whether the company's promotion of improper off-label uses for the anti-seizure drug Depakote violated state laws.
-
February 21, 2012
Deepwater Rig Worker Settles Injury Claims Against BP, Others
A Deepwater Horizon worker aboard the vessel during the April 2010 Macondo well explosion said Monday that she had settled her injury claims against companies targeted in ensuing multidistrict litigation, including BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Energy Services Inc.
-
February 21, 2012
Mont. Landowners' Suit Over Exxon Spill Sent To State Court
A federal judge on Thursday remanded a suit over an ExxonMobil Oil Corp. oil spill into Montana's Yellowstone River, rejecting the oil giant's contention that landowners fraudulently added an Exxon supervisor to the suit to keep it in state court.
-
February 21, 2012
Forest's COPD Drug May Have Added Heart Risks: FDA
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff report Tuesday noted the effectiveness of a proposed Forest Laboratories Inc. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug, but brought up concerns that the drug could raise the risk of heart problems.
-
February 21, 2012
Mylan Settles Defamation Suits Against Pittsburgh Paper
Mylan Inc. and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday settled a pair of lawsuits in West Virginia alleging the newspaper defamed the drugmaker and misused its proprietary information when it ran a story reporting safety violations at a Mylan facility.
-
February 21, 2012
Teva To Pay $270M In Propofol Hepatitis Suits
Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. will spend roughly $270 million on suits claiming the way it packaged its anesthetic Propofol caused a hepatitis C outbreak, Teva told securities regulators Friday, revealing it had settled most of the cases in the Nevada-based litigation.
-
February 21, 2012
Boeing Escapes Supreme Court Review Of Chopper Crash Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review the Ninth Circuit's ruling in favor of The Boeing Co. and other government contractors in a lawsuit bought by the families of soldiers killed in a 2007 helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
-
February 21, 2012
High Court Nixes Nursing Home Death Arbitration Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a West Virginia high court's finding that arbitration deals couldn't apply to wrongful death claims against nursing homes, ruling the decision disregarded decades of precedent including AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion.
-
February 21, 2012
Toyobo Clears Warranty Claims In $8M Body Armor Suit
A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday tossed breach of warranty claims against Toyobo Co. Ltd. in an $8 million suit brought by a body armor company claiming that Toyobo fraudulently sold defective fibers used to make bulletproof vests.
Expert Analysis
-
A Few Lessons On Managing Product Recalls
A recall by a manufacturer necessarily publicizes the possibility of a product defect, and the publicity can generate lawsuits. While lawsuits cannot be prevented, the outlines of such suits can be anticipated, and defense planning should be an integral part of the recall process, says Jonathan Berman of Jones Day.
-
Money Talks: Exposing Bias Using Expert Witness Fees
The obvious credibility issues arising from a witness' financial stake in the outcome of litigation warrants a close examination of your opponent's expert witness fee arrangements, which can be used to impeach or exclude an expert witness, say John Kuppens and Jessica Peters Goodfellow of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.
-
In Promotional Labeling, Size Matters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published final guidance to clarify the requirements for the use of product names in promotional labeling and advertising for prescription drugs, which takes an important step in addressing issues specific to the dissemination of information via the Internet and social media, say attorneys with McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
-
Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
-
Daubert At Class Certification: Is Less More?
In Bruce v. Harley-Davidson, a federal judge in California has tried to shed light on the analysis of expert opinions during class certification by adopting a limited Daubert analysis. However, this "focused" standard would provide defendants in class actions that are ultimately certified with two bites at the Daubert apple, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
-
Building Momentum Against An Expanded Duty To Warn
The separate court decisions in Conner v. Alfa Laval Inc. and O’Neil v. Crane Co., despite both arising in the context of asbestos exposure, have potentially wide application to any other industries in which a manufacturer’s product could be used in conjunction with other products, say Joseph Hovermill and Matthew Schroll of Miles & Stockbridge PC
-
The Buzz On Electric Vehicle Safety
Advanced safety engineering and federal regulatory activity will very likely combine to make electric vehicles even safer than their internal-combustion counterparts. That’s good news for product liability risk managers, and great news for an industry that is just now getting back on its feet, say Fred Fresard and Andrea Figler Ventura of Dykema Gossett PLLC.
-
Taking A Bite Out Of Denied Food-Recall Claims
Given the striking increase of illness and fatality arising from contaminated food in 2011 and the resulting case law indicating that the insurance industry's response to affected companies is often "claim denied," companies in the food industry should carefully analyze the available policies to determine the extent of the coverage they purchase, says Robert Chesler of Lowenstein Sandler PC.
-
FDA's Stepwise Approach To Demonstrating Biosimilarity
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's first draft guidance outlining how it will evaluate applications for regulatory approval of biosimilar products represents the "current thinking" of the FDA on biosimilar product approval, but does not establish any legally enforceable responsibilities for the agency or biosimilar sponsors, say Timothy Shea and Paul Calvo of Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC.
-
Inside The 2nd Circ. Stance In Naranjo And Figueiredo
In Chevron Corp. v. Naranjo and in Figueiredo v. Republic of Peru, the Second Circuit has issued two important rulings regarding the adequacy and enforceability of foreign forums and judgments. In particular, the Figueiredo decision threatens to inject significant uncertainty in arbitral confirmation proceedings, particularly in cases involving sovereign defendants, say James Berger and Charlene Sun of Paul Hastings LLP.