Justice Lax of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released her decision in Andersen v. St. Jude Medical, Inc., dismissing the plaintiffs’ action in its entirety. This much anticipated decision was the culmination of the first product liability class action common issues trial to be completed in Ontario. The court heard testimony for 138 days from 40 witnesses, including 23 expert witnesses. The trial concluded in
September 2011, 18 months after it commenced, with eight days of closing submissions. Blakes represented the defendants in the trial and accordingly this bulletin will summarize the court’s conclusions without analysis.
At issue in Andersen were mechanical prosthetic heart valves developed and marketed by the defendants that incorporated a proprietary silver-based coating called Silzone®. The trial examined the defendants’ conduct in designing, testing and marketing the Silzone® valve (Common Issue 1) and considered issues of general causation – whether Silzone® has an adverse effect on tissue healing (Common Issue 2) and whether the risk of medical complications is greater for patients with Silzone® valves (Common Issue 3). The preponderance of evidence that was adduced at trial addressed these common issues.
The remaining common issues were largely concerned with the entitlement to the remedies sought by the
plaintiffs: medical monitoring (Common Issues 4 and 5), spoliation (Common Issue 6), disgorgement of profits or ‘waiver of tort’ (Common Issues 7 and 8) and punitive damages (Common Issue 10(a)).
http://blakesfiles.com/pub/English/class_actions/jun_2012/SJ.pdf