Many readers of Mesh News Desk are asking what has become of the bellwether trials that were supposed to take place in a timely manner.
That has clearly not happened.
With the first C.R. Bard trial of Donna Cisson taking place in July 2013, the pace has been slow and ponderous leaving many mesh-injured plaintiffs wondering if they will ever see their day in court. See background on Cisson case here.
It was January 2012 when the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided to consolidate the growing number of product liability cases naming six mesh manufacturers into one court before one federal judge. That judge is The Honorable Joseph Goodwin and the federal court is the Southern District of West Virginia in Charleston, WV. The aim was to have coordinated pretrial proceedings in order to avoid conflicting rulings and to organize the discovery process.
Each side was to agree on four bellwether cases to go to trial before a jury to test legal theories and see if there is any basis for a settlement.
Here is how things stand now for future trials.
C.R. Bard:
Cisson v. Bard $2 million ( $1.76 million in punitive and a finding the mesh was defective)
Queen v. Bard- settled out of court by Bard for an undisclosed amount (story here)
Rizzo v Bard - dropped by plaintiff (see background story here)
Jones v. Bard - schedule for May 19 (2:11-cv-0114)
American Medical Systems (AMS):
The first and second bellwether trials in this MDL have been continued from April 7, 2014 and May 5, 2014 to June 2, 2014 at 8:30 a.m. and July 7, 2014 at 8:30 a.m. The cases will be tried seriatimin (a certain order) the following order: Serrano (2:12-cv-03719); Jilovec (2:12-cv-05561); Weiler (2:12-cv-05836); and Fontes (2:12-
cv-02472).
Boston Scientific:
All bellwethers have been cancelled in this court
Ethicon:
Lewis v. Ethicon- ended in directed verdict February 17, 2014 (see story here)
2nd bellwether Huskey v Ethicon June 23, 2014 (2:12-cv-05201)
3rd bellwether Bellew v Ethicon December 4, (2:13-cv-22473)
4th bellwether is not scheduled
For Cook and Coloplast and Neomedic (the new 7th manufacturer added to this MDL), there are no trials scheduled.