By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - Jurors in an upcoming trial in the case of a man who said he suffered chronic pain and other injuries from hernia repair mesh made by Becton, Dickinson and Co's C.R. Bard Inc unit will not be allowed to hear about a 2011 fire in one of the company's factories, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus in Columbus, Ohio said in a written order Monday that the mesh used in plaintiff Aaron Stinson's surgery did not come from the Puerto Rican factory, and in any case had been manufactured four years later. He said the federal rules of evidence did not allow Stinson to use evidence not directly related to his injury to try to prove a general pattern of unsafe conduct.
Stinson alleges that the PerFix Plug mesh used to repair his hernia in 2015 caused extensive scarring, requiring a follow-up surgery in 2017 to remove it, and that he continues to experience chronic pain and other complications.
His trial, scheduled for October, will be the third so-called bellwether trial out of more than 19,000 cases over Bard's hernia mesh before Sargus. Bellwether trials are chosen in federal mass torts to test the strength of the claims and help the parties potentially come to a settlement.
"Plaintiff may not use evidence of the 2011 line fire to show that defendants' [quality management] systems were deficient at the time of the fire, and therefore must have been deficient when plaintiff's device was manufactured," he wrote.
"The line fire evidence is just a gnat on the elephant's butt when it comes to the PerFix Plug liability story so we'll be just fine without that evidence," Timothy O'Brien of Levin Papantonio Rafferty, a lawyer for Stinson, said in an email.
A lawyer for Bard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bard won the first bellwether trial over its hernia mesh in 2021. The second bellwether ended with a $255,000 verdict for the plaintiff last year.
Some cases over Bard hernia mesh are also pending in state courts, one of which resulted in a $4.8 million verdict in Rhode Island last year.
The case is In re: Davol Inc/C.R. Bard Inc Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation, No. 2:18-md-02846, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
For Stinson and other plaintiffs: Timothy O'Brien of Levin Papantonio Rafferty and Kelsey Stokes of Fleming Nolen & Jez
For Bard: Michael Brown of Reed Smith
Read more:
R.I. jury orders Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) to pay $4.8 mln in hernia mesh trial
Becton Dickinson ordered to pay $255k in hernia mesh trial
Becton Dickinson faces first bellwether trial over hernia mesh