Foley Hoag's Product Liability Update is a quarterly update concerning developments in product liability and related law of interest to product manufacturers and sellers. If you find this update useful, please encourage your colleagues and contacts to also register with us on our Web site. As always, you can access all of our publications at www.foleyhoag.com

Included in this Issue:

  • Massachusetts Federal Court In Prescription Drug Case Holds "Learned Intermediary" Rule Requiring Warnings Only To Prescribing Physician Applied Even Though Patient and Caregiver Were Physicians, But Experts' Affidavits of Inadequate Warnings Created Presumption Adequate Warning Would Have Been Heeded And Hence Triable Issue on Causation
  • Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds Post-Judgment Interest Is Not Included in "Amount of the Judgment" to be Doubled Or Trebled For Willful Violation of Mass. Gen. L. Ch. 93A, Massachusetts' Unfair And Deceptive Trade Practices Statute
  • Massachusetts Federal Court Upholds Personal Jurisdiction Over Plane Crash Claims Against Maintenance Contractor Where Complaint Alleged Single Instance of In-State Maintenance Was Related To Claims, Contrary To Contractor's Affidavit, But Rejects Veil-Piercing Imputation of Contractor's Contacts To Other Defendants As Complaint Did Not Allege Facts Showing Active Direction Of And Participation In Contractor's Activities
  • Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Pennsylvania's Strict Statute of Limitations Applies to Negligent Maintenance Claim Because Statute Was Supported By Strong Policy Favoring Expeditious Litigation And Pennsylvania Was Place Of Injury, Outweighing Massachusetts' Interest In Recouping Plaintiff's State-Paid Medical Expenses
  • Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Supplier of Original Jack Assembly Components Could Be Liable, Even Though Replacement Jack Was In Use During Accident, If Remaining Portion of Original Assembly Or Failure to Provide Adequate Warnings Contributed To Plaintiff's Injuries

Excerpt:

Massachusetts Federal Court In Prescription Drug Case Holds "Learned Intermediary" Rule Requiring Warnings Only To Prescribing Physician Applied Even Though Patient and Caregiver Were Physicians, But Experts' Affidavits of Inadequate Warnings Created Presumption Adequate Warning Would Have Been Heeded And Hence Triable Issue on Causation

In Li Liu v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharms. Inc., No. 14-13234, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8959 (D. Mass. Jan. 23, 2017), plaintiffs filed a wrongful death action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the manufacturer and distributor of a prescription anticoagulant, which they alleged caused the 80-year old decedent's death due to uncontrollable brain bleeding following a fall.  Plaintiffs asserted negligence claims based on defective design and failure to warn.  After being transferred for pre-trial management to a multi-district litigation in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, the case was remanded to the District of Massachusetts for further discovery and trial.

Download the April 2017 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update (pdf).

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.