On March 12, Cook Medical filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) in an IVC filter bellwether case, arguing that the verdict of $3 million, given out last month, must be reversed or a new trial must be ordered since the plaintiff failed to provide sufficient evidence for a jury to rule in her favor.
The company claimed that the court was at fault in allowing the evidence, which should have been prohibited, and argued that the court allowed testimony from unqualified experts. The case involved claims brought by a plaintiff who alleged that she developed severe complications after being implanted with the Cook Celect IVC filter to treat a pulmonary embolism. She was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages last month by an Indiana jury.
There are more than 5,400 similar lawsuits filed against Cook Medical as a result of complaints of device breakage and organ perforation issues faced by several individuals. The cases are centralized before Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District of Indiana as part of a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
