Bard Opposes Motion to Produce Employee Docs in Federal Transvaginal Mesh Litigation

Published on September 26, 2014 by Sandy Liebhard

A transvaginal mesh manufacturer has opposed a request from plaintiffs to hand over the personnel files of more than 40 employees, according to court records.

TheNationalLawJournal.com recently reported that the originally motion was filed in a federal multidistrict litigation involving claims against C.R. Bard Inc. Employees whose files have been requested in the proceeding, which is now underway in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia, include the company’s chief operating officer and president, as well as project-specific engineers, division presidents and vice presidents, and project leaders. Bard has responded to the plaintiffs’ request, stating that that the production of personnel files, which include evaluations from supervisors, employees’ medical records and compensation, will invade their privacy. This information is also not relevant to transvaginal mesh lawsuit claims filed in the Southern District of West Virginia litigation, Bard argues.

“This is a products liability case where the central focus is on the design and warnings that accompanied Bard’s pelvic mesh products,” said a transvaginal mesh lawyer for the company.

If the federal judge overseeing mesh lawsuits in West Virginia approves the plaintiffs’ motion to produce personnel documents, the outcome may affect thousands of Bard lawsuits. A Case List updated on September 15, 2014 shows 13,853 claims filed in the litigation on behalf of women who allege chronic pain, pain during sexual intercourse, mesh erosion and other complications caused by transvaginal mesh implants. Plaintiffs accuse C.R. Bard of failing to adequately warn about these risks in their marketing of the pelvic implants, which they claim to have been designed defectively.

C.R. Bard Faces More than 15,000 Vaginal Mesh Lawsuits

In addition to the federal litigation involving C.R. Bard transvaginal mesh, thousands of additional claims have also been filed in the Southern District of West Virginia on behalf on women injured by products from Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit, American Medical Systems Inc., and Boston Scientific, Corp. Between these four litigations, more than 60,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed.

C.R. Bard is also involved in a consolidated litigation now pending in New Jersey’s Atlantic County Superior Court. There, court records reflect the filing of 1,566 lawsuits.