Schedin v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., No. 11-3117 (8th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff sued OMJP and others for failing to warn adequately of the risk of tendon rupture in patients who, like plaintiff, were elderly and taking concomitant corticosteroids. A jury found OMJP primarily liable, awarding plaintiff compensatory and punitive damages. OMJP appealed the district court's denial of its motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) and a new trial. The court held that the district court did not err in denying OMJP's motions for JMOL or a new trial based on the jury's award of compensatory damages where the district court found sufficient evidence of causation, reasoning that the jury finding was not against the preponderance of the evidence. The evidence was neither clear nor convincing, as a matter of law, that OMJP deliberately disregarded the safety of the users of Levaquin. Accordingly, the district court erred in denying JMOL for OMJP on punitive damages.
Court Description: Civil case - Torts. In action alleging defendant had failed to adequately warn of the danger of prescribing its drug Levaquin to elderly patients who take corticosteroids, the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion for a new trial as there was just enough evidence for a reasonable jury to find that defendant did not use sufficient means, under the circumstances of this case, to advise plaintiff's physician of a 2001 warning once defendant learned its package insert was ineffective; evidence was sufficient to establish causation; evidence was neither clear nor convincing, as a matter of law, that defendant deliberately disregarded the safety of users of Levaquin, and the district court erred in denying defendant's motion for judgment as a matter of law on plaintiff's claim for punitive damages. Judge Bye, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
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