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Mitigating the Incidence and Severity of Injuries and Other Harms

In Re: Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Devices Products Liability Litigation v. 3M Company

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Overview

In Re: Bair Hugger Forced Air Warming Devices Products Liability Litigation v. 3M Company (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Aug. 16, 2021): Plaintiffs, a group of patients who had undergone orthopedic-implant surgeries utilizing defendant’s manufactured surgical device, argued the device introduced joint infection-causing bacteria during their surgeries. The plaintiffs asserted state-law claims including negligence and strict products liability. The lower court excluded several of the plaintiffs’ experts and issued a final judgment for the defendants. Plaintiffs appealed, in part due to multiple unfavorable evidentiary rulings the lower court made. The 8th Circuit reversed several of the lower court’s witness exclusions, concluding that the witnesses’ opinions had certain weaknesses, but were not “so fundamentally unsupported” as to merit exclusion. Because these exclusions largely led to the court’s final judgment, the 8th Circuit also reversed the court’s finding in favor of the defendant. Read the full decision here.

View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – November 15, 2021.

View all cases under “Mitigating The Incidence & Severity of Injuries & Other Harms.”