Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit Update: Good News for Victims

Houston, TXIn the first Avaulta transvaginal mesh to go to trial, the plaintiff has been awarded damages of $3.6 million rather than a settlement - another first.

The jury’s first verdict against C.R. Bard, the manufacturer of Avaulta TVM, awarded the plaintiffs $5.5 million but later found the doctor who implanted the mesh to be 40 percent at fault. This lawsuit has been a long one. Plaintiff Christine Scott’s case was filed in July 2012, which was the first lawsuit to name a TVM maker. Typically, the manufacturer appealed, which was affirmed by the appellate court in 2014. And then Bard appealed to the California Supreme Court in February 2015. That’s when Bard signed the check to the Scotts - $500,000 of the $5.5 million was given to Christine’s husband for loss of consortium.

At the trial, attorneys for the Scotts presented such damning evidence against Bard that it may set the stage for more than 21,000 product liability lawsuits Bard is facing. (Almost 13,000 of those TVM cases have been consolidated and pending in the multidistrict litigation in a federal court in Charleston, West Virginia.)

Attorney Elaine Houghton told KGET-TV 17 in Bakersfield, California, that the Avaulta product was first tested on

As for Dr. Kannappan, who implanted Christine with the mesh, she admits that she didn’t bother to read the instructions for using Avaulta Plus. Instead she simply watched a DVD for instructions about a week before Christine’s surgery, according to legalreader.com

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon trial is underway in a West Virginia federal court. The trial combines 37 cases as part of an MDL of more than 23,000 cases claiming Ethicon’s mishandling of transvaginal surgical mesh devices caused serious injuries to patients, according to Law360. The trial is specifically over the negligent design defect and strict liability of Ethicon’s transvaginal mesh. The MDL is In re: Ethicon Inc. Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, case number 2:12-md002327 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

To date, J&J is the only company that has not announced it is working toward any settlements. Last year the drug giant won the first bellwether case against it after a five-day trial. It still continues to contest liability.

The Danish manufacturer Coloplast announced its TVM litigation budget increased to $448 million to cover settlement costs. About 400 lawsuits were already settled by the company back in 2014. Drug Watch reported that 2,000 Coloplast lawsuits are also pending in the MDL court in the Southern District of West Virginia.

Almost 80,000 lawsuits have been consolidated in six MDLs against a number of mesh manufacturers. Besides J&J, they are all working on settlements.