Minnesota Court Rules That EU Class Action Against Hazardous Heart Valve Implant May Continue in America(Washington, D.C., May 5, 2005) A Minnesota state court judge has ruled that class action medical monitoring claims brought against St. Jude Medical, Inc. (“St. Jude”) in St. Paul (Ramsey County), Minnesota, on behalf of up to 14,000 Europeans implanted with the company’s recalled Silzone heart valve can proceed in her Minnesota court. St. Jude is the largest valve manufacturer in the world. St. Jude had sought to dismiss their suit on the grounds that it was inconvenient to continue the case in Minnesota, the home of its international headquarters, and that it should instead be transferred to European courts. In a ruling received this week, District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin stated that, given that key events in the case occurred in St. Paul, and most of the important witnesses and evidence for trial are located there, the class action suit could go forward in Minnesota state court. Such a ruling to keep a case on behalf of European victims in an American court is highly unusual.
Silzone valves, which were partially silver-coated, were removed from the market in January 2000 for safety reasons after being linked to a significantly elevated risk of explants (often due to paravalvular leaks), strokes and other thromboembolic events, and other serious injuries. This suit was filed by Shane O'Neill, a Silzone heart valve implantee who is a citizen of Ireland as well as Canada. O’Neill claims that Silzone valves were defective and unreasonably dangerous due to the toxic effects produced by their silver coating.
According to Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld, & Toll (Washington, D.C.) attorney Daniel W. Sigelman, co-lead counsel for Mr. O'Neill: “We are very gratified that Judge Gearin agreed with Mr. O'Neill’s arguments and decided to allow the European Silzone victims to continue to proceed here in Minnesota. We will be asking the Court for certification of the class as soon as practical. Much of the information that is needed for certification has already been developed in the North American class action proceedings, and once class certification is resolved, we believe that the parties can ask the Court to set the case for trial.”
The class action suit is proceeding on behalf of approximately 10,000 to 14,000 European Silzone valve implantees who are citizens of the original member nations of the European Economic Union (EEU). The suit seeks the costs of establishing court-supervised trust funds to provide ongoing medical examinations and scientific research into Silzone’s long-term adverse effects. The suit also seeks restitution from St. Jude for the costs of the defective valves and the medical care associated with valve implantation and removals. Similar class actions on behalf of American Silzone implantees are pending in Minnesota Federal. This was the second time that St. Jude’s efforts to prevent the EU class action suit from going forward in Minnesota state court was rejected. An earlier attempt by the company to have the case moved to and then dismissed by a Federal Court was denied last year by United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim. Judge Tunheim sent the case back to state court after finding that he lacked federal jurisdiction over it. At that time, he indicated that he was confident that state court judges could and would fairly give due consideration to the interests of Europe and the European nations as the case makes its way through the state court.
In addition to Sigelman’s firm in Washington, D.C., lawyers from the firms of Levy, Angstreich, Finney, Baldante, Rubenstein & Coren, P.C. (Philadelphia, PA.); Zimmerman Reed (Minneapolis, MN.); Lerners LLP (Toronto, Canada) and Leigh Day & CO. (London, England) have lead roles in the prosecution of the suit.
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