The interesting fact pattern that gives rise to the problem in this case is what are the duties of a generic drug manufacturer if, after a drug’s initial federal approval (and approval (and then mandated use) of a specific warning label), new information comes to light about potentially harmful side effects?  Can a claim be brought against the manufacturer under state law for failure to warn? Gloria Mensing took a medicine, MCP, a gene… Continue reading →

…s of the drug, an antibiotic. Levaquin included a warning but sometime after Schedin’s incident, the warning was changed and made more prominent (made into a “black box” warning in 2008).  Subsequent warning label changes would be a classic “subsequent remedial measure” inadmissible at trial if it were not for the fact that the label change was mandated by the FDA, U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim has held. … Continue reading →

…istrict court computed a total storage-fee award of $259,000 to CFS for a net storage period of 35 months.  The Court of Appeals affirmed in part but knocked down the amount owed. The Court of Appeals (Stauber, Stoneburner, Ross) agreed with the district court (Kerr Kerasov, J., Hennepin Cty.) that AGA has unjustly retained a benefit from CFS’s services and affirmed in part. But because the district court exceeded its discretion by awarding … Continue reading →

…al in violation of Minnesota law. In response, Swenson sued for the deprivation of his dead bear by the state. The trial court granted the state’s motion for summary judgment; now the Minnesota Court of Appeals (Wright, Ross, Harten) has reversed.  The key?  The referenced Minnesota law defines “wild animals” as “living creatures.” The state countered that Minnesota law allows the state to regulate parts of wild anim… Continue reading →

From time to time, our legal system produces dull business cases whose only allure is that they seem convoluted to the point of being almost comic. For example, in Elsenpeter v. St. Michael Mall, a Wright County case (Judge Dale E. Mossey) recently decided by the Minnesota Court of Appeals (Schellhas, Hudson, Ross), plaintiff Tenant brought a lawsuit to compel an arbitration where the contract the defendant Landlord drafted provided for…a… Continue reading →

… to find someone guilty of Attempt to Commit Theft By Swindle, it is not necessary that the target or targets of the alleged swindle believed that the false representations were true. The Court of Appeals (Peterson, Wright, Ross) rejected Riddle’s challenge to the pattern instruction and rejected his challenge to the added instruction addressing Hopeman’s imperviousness to the scam, as well. … Continue reading →

…rm or illness? As a first line of defense, pharmaceuticals and device manufacturers seek protection under federal regulation but there are ways for such manufacturers to game that system (by promoting, for example, “off label” uses or, theoretically, by duping federal regulators by other means (i.e., concealing or distorting data as to efficacy or side effects)). So the FDA may afford medical companies some protection, but that protec… Continue reading →

…n that would have negatively affected levofloxacin sales in both Europe and the United States.  Over the past decade, there appears to have been increased concern about these medications and the communication of risk on their labels.  The label warnings have been increasingly emphatic.  Plaintiffs’ theories seem to be, in a nutshell, that the drug companies knew of the medicine’s risks and have steadfastly tried to understate or de-em… Continue reading →

Were you sold a flare root injection regimen for a treasured oak or multiple oaks on your property to prevent oak wilt disease, only to have your tree die from oak wilt notwithstanding the hundreds of dollars (or more) spent on flare root injection? One label on branded propiconazole says,  “Preventive application is more effective than therapeutic treatment.”  Some companies that “administer” the flare root injections d… Continue reading →

…njection regimen for a treasured oak or multiple oaks on your property to prevent oak wilt disease, only to have your tree die from oak wilt notwithstanding the hundreds of dollars (or more) spent on flare root injection? One label on branded propiconazole says,  “Preventive application is more effective than therapeutic treatment.”  Some companies that “administer” the flare root injections do so with a guaranty or warran… Continue reading →