Published May 16, 2014 by Digital Journal
The federal judge overseeing thousands of transvaginal mesh lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon, Inc. unit has sanctioned the companies’ attorneys for removing certain cases to federal court, despite numerous rulings that the lawsuits belong in a Pennsylvania litigation. According to court documents, the lawsuits in question named Pennsylvania-based Secant Medical Inc. as a defendant, and were originally filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. In an Order issued on May 13, 2014, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia wrote that the defense attempts to move the cases, despite repeated rulings that Secant had not been fraudulently joined, were calculated “to keep these cases out of state court for as long as possible and to waste the court’s time and the plaintiff’s resources.” (In re: Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair Systems Products Liability Litigation – MDL No. 2327)
Ethicon Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits
Court documents indicate that more than 18,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed in the Southern District of West Virginia on behalf of women who were allegedly injured by Ethicon devices used in the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. Bernstein Liebhard LLP partner, Jeffrey S. Grand, is serving on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in that proceeding. All of the complaints allege that the use of these devices caused thousands of women to suffer mesh erosion, chronic pain, organ damage and other serious, and sometimes permanent, vaginal mesh complications.
Mr. Grand is also serving as Co-Liaison Counsel in two multicounty litigations underway in New Jersey Superior Court for transvaginal mesh lawsuits involving products marketed by C.R. Bard and Ethicon. He was also a member of the Plaintiff’s trial team on the first Ethicon trial in that proceeding, which ended in March with a jury awarding $11 million in compensatory and punitive damages to a woman who was harmed by the Ethicon Gynecare Prolift device. (In re: Pelvic Mesh/Gynecare Litigation, No. 6341-10; In re: Pelvic Mesh Litigation/Bard, No. L-6339-10)
According to court records, more than 55,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed against a number of device manufacturers in litigations that are underway in the Southern District of West Virginia. Mr. Grand is also serving on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees in proceedings involving : American Medical Systems, Inc. (MDL No. 2325); Boston Scientific Corp., (MDL No. 2326); and C.R. Bard, Inc., (MDL No. 2187).
<p”>Alleged victims of vaginal mesh complications may be entitled to file their own transvaginal mesh lawsuit. To learn more about the litigation involving these devices, please visit https://careydanis.com. To obtain a free, confidential and no-obligation case review, please call 1.800.721.2519.
