Court: Calif. Super., Los Angeles Co. - Plaintiff, Ronald Carpenter, filed suit against various defendants, claiming his lung cancer was caused by exposure to asbestos from their products. Carpenter alleged various exposures,...more
In June 2025, a Suffolk County, Massachusetts jury delivered an $8 million verdict in Janice Paluzzi v. Johnson & Johnson (21-2109). The jury allocated $5 million for past pain and suffering and $3 million for future pain and...more
Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, Fourth Department - In this personal injury action, plaintiff Joseph Skrzynski alleged asbestos exposure from brakes and other related products while working at an automobile...more
This week, Georgia's governor signed a new pesticide labeling and liability act (SB 144) ("Act"), amending state law to limit the scope of pesticide manufacturer liability for failure to warn and aligning the state standards...more
The legal landscape surrounding Depo-Provera, a long-acting injectable birth control, has entered a pivotal phase. With the growing number of lawsuits alleging that the drug caused serious brain tumors known as meningiomas,...more
Foley Hoag LLP publishes this quarterly Update primarily concerning developments in product liability and related law from federal and state courts applicable to Massachusetts, but also featuring selected developments for New...more
Jurisdiction: Calif. Super., Los Angeles Co. - Plaintiff Jose Estrada filed suit alleging exposure to asbestos from a variety of products, including automobile parts during his employment at a tire store. Mr. Estrada was...more
On Feb. 11, 2025, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District in Durnell v. Monsanto Co., upheld a jury verdict awarding $1.25 million in compensatory damages to plaintiff John Durnell from defendant Monsanto Co....more
In 2022, over 500 plaintiffs filed a case alleging that Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a drug manufacturing company, failed to provide adequate warnings that one of their drugs increased the risk of atypical femoral fractures....more
A lawsuit filed earlier this year highlights potential PFAS liability exposure for fertilizer manufacturers, especially those that produce biosolid-based products. Five Texas farmers have sued Synagro Technologies, alleging...more
Ozempic and other diabetes-weight loss drugs have been linked to at least 162 deaths and 10,000 cases involving “serious” injuries since 2018, according to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)....more
In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told industry that it would begin enforcing the agency’s cigarette graphic warning rule in December 2025 in an enforcement policy outlined in a short guidance...more
For decades, both state and federal courts in Michigan have routinely applied the learned intermediary doctrine in products liability cases involving prescription medical products. Under the doctrine, a manufacturer’s duty to...more
The number of cases involving so-called “nuclear verdicts” — that is, verdicts with awards of $10 million or more — have risen sharply, and many of those cases concern product liability claims. For large corporations, such...more
In Himes v. Somatics, LLC, No. S273887, 2024 WL 3059637 (Cal. June 20, 2024), the Supreme Court of California delivered a win to the defense, upholding the learned intermediary doctrine in cases involving prescription drugs...more
As of May 2022, Monsanto, the company that developed the allegedly cancer-causing weed killer Roundup, has settled more than 100,000 lawsuits, and paid nearly $11 billion in settlements. Despite this massive number, 30,000...more
Aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, has been linked to an increased risk of several types of cancer, including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and pancreatic cancers. Civilian and military firefighters who worked with AFFF...more
Suboxone is a medication used to treat opioid addiction, containing buprenorphine and naloxone. While Suboxone is highly effective in helping individuals overcome opioid dependence, there have been concerns about its...more
Massachusetts federal and state courts issued several important product liability decisions in 2023. Nutter’s Product Liability practice group reviewed these cases and report on their significant holdings as follows ...more
Crafting the perfect medical device is never an exact science—but a patient should never suffer because of defects in a product that was intended to improve their quality of life. Determining whether a device manufacturer or...more
Court: Supreme Court of New York, New York County (NYCAL) - In this asbestos action, boiler defendant Burnham LLC was sued for a variety of claims, including failure to warn, loss of consortium, and punitive damages....more
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can hold the publisher liable for the packaging. In its recently issued opinion, Johnson v. Edward Orton, Jr. Ceramic Foundation, 71 F.4th 601 (7th Cir. 2023), the Seventh Circuit...more
Can a company be found liable for failure to warn about hazards of another company’s product used in packaging for its own product? What about when the company wasn’t warned that packaging could contain anything potentially...more