Product Liability

March 4, 2009

Florida Smokers’ $580 M Trust Fund and Justice Department Settles for $18 M

The trustee of a trust fund for sick Florida smokers is prepared to settle some claims by the federal government for $18 million, freeing up the rest of the $580 million fund for smokers and their attorneys.

“We have reached an agreement in principle with the Department of Justice in full settlement of all claims for reimbursement of Medicare and Veterans Administration benefits received by beneficiaries” of the fund, according to fund trustee Miles McGrane.

When it comes to how the settlement money would be paid, McGrane offered two scenarios — a quick and easy method dividing the total by about 45,000 authorized claimants for a charge of $400 each or a belabored process of running their Social Security numbers through Medicare and VA databases to check for individual benefit payments.

March 2, 2009

Seroquel Increased Risks of Diabetes

by Dr. Shezad Malik

According to plaintiffs’ attorneys AstraZeneca PLC failed to warn physicians and patients about risks associated with its widely used schizophrenia drug Seroquel.

According to documents that were just unsealed in a U.S. federal court case showed AstraZeneca knew about the risk of weight gain and diabetes in 2000.

The company “not only failed to warn physicians and patients about the risk of diabetes but they also marketed them in a way that represented that there was no risk.”

February 21, 2009

Indiana Jury Awards $157M in Tree Stand Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An Indiana woman has been awarded $157 million in a wrongful death lawsuit she filed against the manufacturers of a tree stand that malfunctioned, killing her husband three years ago.

The substantial default judgment, reached by jurors in about an hour, no one representing the defendants — L & L Enterprises in Hattiesburg, Miss., Ol’ Man Tree Stands in Jay, Fla., and TSR Inc. in Pace, Fla. — showed for the trial.

Carol Simonton filed the civil tort in February 2006, about four months after her husband, Timothy Simonton, was found hanged to death in Parke County, IN.

February 18, 2009

Philip Morris to Pay $8 Million to Smoker’s Widow

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Philip Morris has to pay the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer $8 million in damages in a case that could affect about 8,000 similar Florida lawsuits.

The six jurors deliberated over two days before returning the award for Elaine Hess, whose husband Stuart Hess died in 1997 at age 55 after decades as a chain smoker.

The award amounts to $3 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages against Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA.

The Hess case was the first to go to trial since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 voided a $145 billion class-action jury award, which was by far the highest punitive damage award in U.S. history.

February 15, 2009

PCA Peanut Company Files for Bankruptcy Protection

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Peanut Corporation of America, the company responsible for the nationwide salmonella outbreak, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and will begin liquidating its assets as legal claims pile up against it.

Companies that Lynchburg, Va.-based PCA supplied with peanut products have also filed suit against it, and PCA’s insurer, Hartford Casualty Insurance, has filed a lawsuit in an effort to limit its liability.

February 12, 2009

All Peanut Products From Texas Plant Are Recalled

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Texas health officials ordered a recall of every product ever shipped from a Plainview peanut processing plant since March 2005 after inspectors discovered contamination.

Inspectors found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in a crawl space above a food production area at the Peanut Corp. of America’s Plainview plant, according to authorities from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The plant’s air handling system was not completely sealed and was pulling debris from the infested crawl space onto exposed food products in production areas.

February 11, 2009

Court Awards $1.4M in Taser Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal court has ordered Taser International to pay $1.4 million to lawyers for the family of a California man who died after police officers repeatedly shocked him with stun guns.

February 10, 2009

F.D.A. to Restrict Prescriptions of Narcotics

by Dr. Shezad Malik

According to federal drug officials, many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medications inappropriate use.

A new control program will result in restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids like OxyContin, fentanyl patches, methadone tablets and some morphine tablets.

February 10, 2009

Yaz Birth Control Pill and Advertising

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has just introduced a new $20 million advertising campaign for Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the United States.

But the television ads, are not typical spots promoting the benefits of a prescription drug. Instead, they warn that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it will also cure pimples or premenstrual syndrome.

As part of an unusual crackdown on deceptive consumer drug advertising, the Food and Drug Administration and the attorneys general of 27 states have required Bayer to run these new ads to correct previous Yaz marketing.

February 3, 2009

Texas Peanut Plant Under Investigation

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A peanut processing plant in Texas run by the Peanut Corp. of America, which is being investigated for a national salmonella outbreak, operated for years uninspected and unlicensed by Texas health officials.

The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview was never inspected until after the company fell under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration.

Once inspectors learned about the Texas plant, they found no sign of salmonella there. This finding raises questions; how it could have operated unlicensed for nearly four years and about the adequacy of government efforts to keep the nation’s food supply safe. Texas is among states where the FDA relies on state inspectors to oversee food safety.