One of our primary goals is to bring you the latest and greatest news in the drug and device litigation world. But sometimes we don't learn of a case at the time it's decided. So, then we need to move on to another of our guiding principles – if it's good for the defense, we talk about it. So, while today we happen to have come upon a case that was decided in 2017, it dovetails with our recent post Taking Out the Laundry With TwIqbal where we talked about plaintiffs' attempts to bluff their way to a valid parallel violation claim. And that's exactly what the plaintiff in Rand v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., 2017 WL 8229320 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 5, 2017) tried to do. Plaintiff put together a "laundry list" of allegations that the defendant's device violated with no hint of what exactly the defendant did that was in violation. In our prior post we commented that "most courts are willing to use TwIqbal to call bull$%@&! on these types of allegations." Fortunately, Rand can be added to that list.

The device at issue in Rand is a hip resurfacing prosthesis that underwent pre-market approval from the FDA. That's why we are talking about parallel violation claims. Following a nice Riegel analysis, the court looked at plaintiff's allegations for each cause of action.

Strict liability: Under California law, this is a claim for a design, manufacturing and warning defect. Because the FDA reviews "device design, manufacturing processes, and device labeling" as part of the PMA, "the MDA preempts state-law claims against these three aspects of PMA-compliant devices." Id. at *4. So, plaintiff made 2 laundry lists – one of "various federal regulations" and another of defendant's alleged misconducts. Double the nonsense.

First, plaintiff included regulations that go to the adequacy of defendant's PMA application. "But FDA's approval demonstrates the agency's reasonable assurance of [the device's] safety and effectiveness based on the application." Id. So any claim premised on those regulations is preempted. Second, the court moved on to TwIqbal finding some allegations so poorly pleaded that it is "impossible to determine whether they add to federal requirements and hare hence preempted." Id. Finally, some allegations were completely conclusory.

Plaintiff's second list wasn't much better. Not only did it include conclusory allegations – basically just speculation – but plaintiff also included alleged misconduct that was irrelevant. For example, plaintiff alleged wrongdoing regarding device components used in off-label combinations but plaintiff was implanted with such a combination. In other words, plaintiff was tossing pasta at the wall and just hoping something stuck. That's not good enough under TwIqbal.

The only allegation that made the cut was failure to report adverse events. Id. This is California, so it's to be expected.

Negligence: This largely mirrors plaintiff's strict liability claim and suffers the same fate. The only new "misconduct" included in the negligence count was about defendant's withdrawal of the device for "demographics groups" to which plaintiff didn't belong. Irrelevant. Id. at *5. And, plaintiff surmised that defendant's breach proximately caused his injury but provided no support for that allegation. Id. The entire negligence claim was dismissed.

Breach of express warranty: Again, most of plaintiff's allegations are insufficient:

Without more details, the statements that [defendant's] devices are of merchantable quality, safe, effective, and fit and proper for its intended use are no more than an affirmation merely of the value of the goods or a statement purporting to be merely the seller's opinion or commendation of the goods. Such unspecific statements do not create a warranty.

Id. (citation and quotation marks omitted). The court did find that a press release cited by plaintiff created an express warranty but plaintiff failed to allege how the press release violated any PMA requirement. Without that, the claim was dismissed without prejudice.

Breach of implied warranty: This claim was preempted:

Both types of implied warranties involve an assertion that the goods are fit for then intended purpose. Implied warranty of merchantability further imposes labeling requirement and requires that the goods conform to the statements on the label. But these conditions are precisely what a PMA entails. Thus, unless the defendant violates these conditions under the PMA, § 360k(a) expressly preempts this claim.

Id. at *6 (citation omitted). Since plaintiff used the device for the purpose the FDA approved – no breach of implied warranty claim.

Fraudulent concealment: Here again plaintiff attempts to rely on a failure to report adverse events to state his claim. But essential to a fraud claim is that defendant had a duty to disclose the concealed fact to plaintiff. Id. We think this negates failure to report as a basis for strict liability as well and we've made our views on that clear many times. Here, plaintiff didn't allege that federal regulations require defendant to report adverse events to plaintiff – nor can he because that's not the law. That means that this would be an "additional requirement" which is preempted. Id..

The claim also failed for no allegation of intentional concealment by defendant and for not satisfying Rule 9(b)'s heightened pleading requirement for fraud. Id.

It may not be the latest and greatest, but it adds to the wealth of decisions tossing plaintiffs' multi-paragraph list of violations which are a lot more bark than bite.

This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.