PRODUCTS LIABILITY-INFERIOR VENA CAVA FILTER-STRICT LIABILITY-NEGLIGENCE-FRAUD-PUNITIVE DAMAGES

Maietta v. C.R. Bard, Inc., et al., No. 19-4170 (E.D. Pa. August 19, 2022) (Baylson, J.)  Judge Baylson granted defendant’s motion on strict liability and struck it.  However, he refused to strike the other counts, which were information defect, design defect, negligence in designing the product, negligence by failing to warn, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, loss of consortium and punitive damages.  The judge’s decision on strict liability was because of a memo called The Price Memo from the FDA in 1996 that said there were certain risks to the filter.  The judge said, therefore, that the product cannot be made unavoidably safe and that it was unavoidably unsafe and therefore Comment k applied and a strict liability claim could not be brought.  The judge, however, denied all of the other motions.