Case Notes

On April 28, a Philadelphia jury awarded the plaintiff in a pelvic mesh lawsuit $20 million, most of it in the form of punitive damages. In Engelman v. Ethicon, C.P. Philadelphia No. 021103888, plaintiff Margaret Engelman complained that she had been implanted with Ethicon's TVT-Secur mesh, which began falling apart just two months later, requiring her to undergo three further surgeries. Portions of the device remain in her body to this day, causing ongoing pain and urinary dysfunction. The manufacturer defended by asserting in its memorandum that Engelman offered no evidence that the harm she suffered was not a known risk to pelvic floor surgeons, and “[u]nder New Jersey law, a manufacturer has no duty to warn of risks that are within the common knowledge of physicians.” This defense did not fly with the jurors, all 12 of whom agreed that the manufacturer was guilty of failure to warn, and that this failure was the cause of Engelman's injuries.