Products Liability › Constitutional Law

The Evolving Law of Personal Jurisdiction May Affect International Supply Chain Risk

In the last two months, the United States Supreme Court granted review in two cases involving the limits of federal court jurisdiction over foreign companies: DaimlerChrysler AG v. Bauman, No. 11-965 (cert. granted Apr. 22,...more

CWP 4750 of 2013 [Hemant Goswami vs. Union of India]

PIL - Ban Identified Carcinogens

The Writ petition is about the unrestricted commercial availability of many substances which are labelled as Group 1 (Class A) or Group 2A/2B Carcinogens (Sure-shot Cancer causing agents) by the WHO IARC (International Agency...more

Class Actions Hang in Balance of Supreme Court Docket

The United States Supreme Court is set to decide a series of cases this year that could have a dramatic impact on the future of class action litigation. The way the nation’s highest court rules in these cases could impact...more

Supreme Court to Hear Design Defect Preemption Case

Generic drug manufacturers were encouraged on Friday when the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case of Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, No. 12-142 (on appeal from the First Circuit, Bartlett v. Mutual Pham. Co.,...more

Standing 101: Can You Be Injured by a Product You Never Bought?

Common sense tells you that you can’t be injured by something you never bought. This must be covered in Standing 101, right? Believe it or not, this issue is being debated right now in the California consumer class action...more

Product Liability Update -- October 2012

In This Issue: Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Japanese Escalator Accident Study Inadmissible for Lack of Authentication and Demonstrated Connection to Facts of Case, Defendant’s Introduction of New Shoe Design in...more

Acted With Substantial Justification

Just wondering, but what does the phrase "acted with substantial justification" mean in the sanctions statute for motion to compel depo testimony, CCP 2025.480 (pdf)? Does it mean the conduct that led the moving party to...more

Texas Supreme Court Adopts “Learned Intermediary Doctrine” and Holds Facts of Case Did Not Justify Creating Exception Based on...

The Texas Supreme Court has held that the learned intermediary doctrine generally applies within the context of a physician-patient relationship and allows a prescription drug manufacturer to fulfill its duty to warn end...more

The Second Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment after Analysis of Virginia Law Regarding Cross Jurisdictional Tolling of the Statute...

Casey v. Merck & Co., 653 F.3d 95, 100-01 (2d Cir. 2011), involved consolidated products liability actions brought by prescription drug users against a drug manufacturer. The plaintiffs asserted claims under Virginia law for...more

Asset Sales in Bankruptcy: An Important Decision

U.S. bankruptcy law permits debtors-in-possession and trustees to sell assets free and clear of claims, liens and other interests. But a federal judge in New York ruled recently that a purchaser does not necessarily buy free...more

Is There A Constitutional Right To Punitive Damages?

We recently came across a post on a Bricker & Eckler blog, about a recent Ohio Supreme Court case, Havel v. Villa St. Joseph, 963 N.E.2d 1270 (Ohio 2012), upholding the constitutionality of an Ohio statute imposing mandatory...more

Who Needs TwIqbal?

Don’t misunderstand us. TwIqbal’s great. It’s left a lot of badly pleaded carnage in its wake over the last five years. But at times it makes sense to mix things up, to give the bench players a chance. Take standing for...more

Pain Pump Plaintiff’s Promotion-Based Punitives Precluded

It’s déjà vu all over again. Taking a rather tattered page from the Bone Screw plaintiffs’ spectacularly unsuccessful playbook of a decade ago, at least some plaintiffs in the every-man-for-himself Pain Pump litigation are...more

Tobacco Companies Get Smoked in Court

Big tobacco companies are exposed to billions of dollars in damages in Florida smokers’ lawsuits now that the they’ve lost their attempt to overturn multi-million dollar verdicts when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to...more

Kurns - Anything In It For Us?

A couple of weeks ago – yeah, that’s right, on February 29 – the Supreme Court issued a ruling preempting asbestos product liability claims in Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products Corp., 2012 WL 631857, slip op. (U.S. Feb. 29,...more

More Inspiration from the Courts on Commercial Speech

When most of us think of the First Amendment, commercial speech is probably not what springs to mind. A business talking about its products doesn’t fit our classic perception of free speech. It will never equal the “I Have...more

In re Thorpe Insulation Company: The Non-Settling Insurers Strike Back

On January 24, 2012, Judge Ronald M. Gould of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that an appeal filed by certain insurance companies with respect to a plan confirmation order was not moot and that such...more

Par Pharmaceutical vs USA - Off-Label Promotion and the First Amendment

Par filed suit seeking a judgment declaring FDA’s regulations unconstitutional and preventing FDA from deeming lawful First Amendment protected speech as evidence of criminal intent. In response, FDA is seeking early...more

CAFA - Not With Standing?

We were just reading an interesting, relatively new, decision from our home Circuit, Reilly v. Ceridian Corp., 664 F.3d 38 (3d Cir. 2011), and our reaction to it wasn’t quite what most readers would expect. ...more

Arkansas Supreme Court Strikes Down “Tort Reform” Law

The Arkansas Supreme Court put the state’s legislature in its place with its decision in a recent medical malpractice case. On Jan 19, the state’s highest court struck down provisions of the controversial 2003 Civil Justice...more

Retroactive Application of Florida's Asbestos and Silica Act Held Unconstitutional

In a 5-2 decision released Friday, July 8, the Florida Supreme Court held that the retroactive application of the 2005 Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act (Act) is unconstitutional because it divested the named...more

Fruit Juice MDL Court Dismisses Claims

The Massachusetts federal court overseeing multidistrict litigation against 11 beverage companies, including Coca-Cola Co. and Del Monte Corp., alleging that their fruit juices contained trace amounts of lead, dismissed the...more

Appeals Court Rejects Personal Jurisdiction Over Foreign Manufacturer

As we have noted for reader, lower courts continue to work to interpret and apply the Supreme Court's decision in J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. v. Nicastro. Earlier this week, a California appeals court found that the lower...more

FDA Takes It On The Chin Again In First Amendment Case

This opinion involves cigarette warnings, so we have to be careful, since Dechert represents tobacco companies. We recommend that our readers interested in First Amendment issues take a look at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v....more

You Heard It Here First

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about the FDA's off-label promotion ban being "in some jeopardy" after the Supreme Court's Sorrell decision, and pointing to the Caronia case, to be decided "within...more