What Happened In The MassTorts World Last Week? 2021-Feb-08

Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) trial staff has urged that the commission should not delay the virtual trial slated for April 13 against the tobacco manufacturer Altria's $12.8 billion investment in electronic cigarette company Juul.

Juul Labs Inc. and Altria Group Inc are demanding to delay the trial further from the current date of April 13 to mid-July, considering the worsening pandemic outbreak. The FTC's trial staff is opposing both the company's demands by stating that it is unrealistic speculation that holding an in-person trial in mid-July will be safe. FTC's complaint counsel said that the proceedings should begin virtually at the start of mid-April and keep the proceedings virtual. 

The staffers informed that although the vaccine news is promising, it is not clear if the chief administrative law judge and his staff, witnesses, and counsel will get the vaccination any soon, making it better to conduct virtual hearings for the case.

The attorneys for the companies argued that the trial should be delayed further, as the masses will not get the vaccine until late June or early July. They even informed that starting virtual hearings will not prevent the health risk, as the attorneys will require to plan accordingly by gathering in-person evidence and prepare witnesses. The attorneys even raised concern over the credibility of the testifying witnesses.

The Federal Trade Commission is overseeing the case, In the Matter of Altria Group/Juul Labs, file number 191-0075.

U.S. District Judge Richard Story, presiding over all federal hernia mesh lawsuits involving Ethicon Physiomesh, has released a trial schedule with the first case starting in March.

Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon subsidiary introduced the Ethicon Physiomesh in 2010. It was a multi-layered, flexible composite hernia mesh product that was removed from the market after six years of its launch. The discontinuation of the product resulted from numerous complaints that claimed additional surgeries for the individuals who had it implanted.

Currently, more than 3,000 Ethicon Physiomesh lawsuits are filed throughout the federal system. Each lawsuit claims that the manufacturer sold an unreasonably dangerous and defective product that resulted in painful and debilitating complications causing severe abdominal pain, infection, hernia recurrence, adhesions, perforations, erosion, and other injuries leading to revision surgery for removal of the product.

The lawsuits are consolidated under MDL No.: 2782 in the Northern District of Georgia. The jury has identified four cases that will go before trial for the hearings starting from March 18, 2021. The initial trial is estimated to go on for two to three weeks, followed by the second trial set to begin on June 7, 2021. The remaining two trials will go before the jury on September 13, 2021. 

As a part of an MDL or multidistrict litigation, all the federal cases are centralized before U.S. District Judge Richard Story in the Northern District of Georgia to reach a common outcome.

Last Friday, Judge Robert B. Kugler of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, presiding over the Valsartan multidistrict litigation (MDL), denied dismissing fraud-based claims against the manufacturers of the blood pressure drug.

According to the order dated January 29, Judge Kugler upheld claims of fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and other fraud-based claims against manufacturers and dismissed them without prejudice against the wholesalers and pharmacies, stating that they were too conclusory to fulfill Rule 9(b)’s particularity requirement.

The opinion stated that the fraud claims are viable against the manufacturers as the consumers included precision and a large measure of substantiation into their allegations.

The judge said the allegations made against the manufacturers are sufficient to raise an inference of knowledge or, at the very least, recklessness and disagreed with manufacturers' argument that the consumers failed to show knowledge or scienter in their allegations.

A week ago, Judge Kugler also rejected bids from the defendants over the dismissal of warranty claims, stating that the claims are viable against the manufacturers as they marketed their products as "valsartan or valsartan‐containing, and all three sets of defendants should face certain breach of implied warranty claims.

Currently, several hundred product liability lawsuits are pending in the litigation docket, each raising similar allegations that long-term exposure to recalled valsartan drug results in stomach cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other injuries. The lawsuits are consolidated under MDL No. 2875 in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey.

On February 3, Bayer issued a press release announcing a settlement deal to resolve future legal claims worth up to $2 billion over allegations that the widely used weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.

According to the proposed plan, Monsanto’s parent company will be paying $2 billion over a period of four years to cover outreach and diagnostic assistance of individuals who have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and were exposed to Roundup prior to their diagnosis.

Under the deal, future claimers could receive up to $200,000, and the parties can consent over the settlement period. It also includes benefits for people who were exposed to Roundup and might develop cancer in the future. The plan should be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco.

An attorney for the proposed class said that as per the revised plan, one could sue in court if the claimant does not claim during the four years period, and if anyone does not like the compensation offered under the class plan, they can go to the court system and try for a better result.

The company has agreed to take permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give a reference link on labels for consumers to find scientific studies about the weedkiller.

Currently, Bayer is facing more than 125,000 Roundup lawsuits, and the company has acknowledged the filing of 52,500 lawsuits. The lawsuits are consolidated under MDL No. 2741 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Roundup, which Monsanto first brought to the market in 1974, is widely used by farmers across the United States and Brazil, alongside crops that are genetically engineered to withstand its herbicidal effect.

Glyphosate, a weed-killing chemical, is the most widely used herbicide in the country. According to the National Pesticide Information Center at the University of Oregon, it is more than 750 products are sold in the united states. Even if it's a chemical, and it has been around for decades, it is of men, it is only recently that we realized that it seeps in from the farm to the dinner table.