Carol Mack v. Stryker Corporation

748 F.3d 845, 2014 WL 1876124, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8806
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 12, 2014
Docket12-3130
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 748 F.3d 845 (Carol Mack v. Stryker Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carol Mack v. Stryker Corporation, 748 F.3d 845, 2014 WL 1876124, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8806 (8th Cir. 2014).

Opinions

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Carol Mack underwent shoulder surgery in 2002. The surgeon inserted a pain pump designed to infuse anesthetic into Mack’s shoulder to mitigate her pain while she recovered from surgery. Following surgery, Mack developed a painful shoulder condition known as chondrolysis. Mack, along with her husband, sued Stryker Corporation and Stryker Sales Corporation (collectively, “Stryker”), the manufacturer and seller of the pain pump. Mack alleged negligence and strict products liability for design defect and failure to warn. Her husband asserted a claim for loss of consortium. The district court1 granted Stryker’s motion for summary judgment. On appeal, Mack contends that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standard by construing the facts in a light more favorable to Stryker. Furthermore, Mack contends that “[t]he district court ... disregarded admissible expert testimony and instead relied upon the court’s own inexpert interpretation of technical evidence and its relevance to conclude that there was no evidence that Stryker should have known of the risk to cartilage posed by its pain pump.” We affirm.

I. Background

Mack underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on August 1, 2002, to alleviate persistent pain in her left shoulder. Near the surgery’s conclusion, the surgeon inserted a pain pump that Stryker had manufactured, marketed, and sold to him. The pump consisted of a pumping mechanism and anesthetic reservoir attached to a catheter. The pain pump was designed to deliver a set dosage of an anesthetic, in this case bupivacaine, at regular intervals [848]*848into a patient’s surgically repaired shoulder for approximately two days to assist in the patient’s recovery from surgery. Specifically, the pump was designed to inject bupivacaine directly into the glenohumeral joint space of the patient’s shoulder. Stryker marketed its pain pumps for this use.

The glenohumeral joint consists of a ball (humeral head) and socket (the glenoid). During shoulder movement, the ball glides (articulates) against the socket. A layer of articular cartilage acts as a cushion by covering the ball and socket, thus preventing painful bone-on-bone contact during shoulder movement. Articular cartilage is found only in enclosed joint spaces like the glenohumeral joint. Articular cartilage is somewhat unique in that synovial fluid, not blood, nourishes the cartilage cells. When these cartilage cells no longer receive nourishment from synovial fluid, they die. Eventually, the cartilage matrix comprised of these dead cells dissipates until no cartilage remains. When no cartilage remains, shoulder movement is accompanied by painful bone-on-bone contact where the ball and socket interact without the protective cushion. Chondrolysis is the painful medical condition whereby an individual loses articular cartilage in a joint.

Following her surgery, Mack began to experience additional shoulder pain. She began receiving additional treatment and therapy on the shoulder in 2003. By January 2004, Mack was diagnosed with chondrolysis. Mack underwent several additional shoulder surgeries to combat chondrolysis’s effects.

Mack brought this diversity suit against Stryker on July 13, 2010. Mack asserted several theories of recovery, including negligence and strict products liability based on a design defect and failure to warn.2 The district court granted Stryker’s motion for summary judgment. Mack v. Stryker Corp., 893 F.Supp.2d 976, 978 (D.Minn.2012). The district court reasoned that, based on the medical literature existing at the time of Mack’s surgery in 2002, it was not reasonably foreseeable to Stryker that the use of its pain pump in an articular joint would lead to joint damage. Id. at 987. In fact, the medical community was unaware of any link between pain pumps and chondrolysis until at least 2007.3 Id. The district court noted that it was “troubled by the hindsight and speculation necessary to find in favor of Mack.” Id. The district court added that “[t]he law does not obligate Stryker to be a pioneer, particularly when existing literature did not objectively forewarn of injury,” id. at 987 (citation omitted), and “[i]t would be nothing short of rank speculation to suggest that any testing Stryker may have undertaken prior to 2002 would necessarily have revealed the causal connection that is still arguably unsettled today,” id. at 988 (citation omitted).

II. Discussion

Mack contends on appeal that the district court erred by failing to recognize the extent of the medical community’s knowledge of the risks associated with intra-articular pain pumps at the time of Mack’s surgery. Mack also disputes the effect of [849]*849the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) failure to clear intra-articular pain pumps for postoperative use.

“We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment.” Rester v. Stephens Media, LLC, 739 F.3d 1127, 1130 (8th Cir.2014) (citation omitted). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a). “We view the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the record.” Spencer v. Jackson Cnty. Mo., 738 F.3d 907, 911 (8th Cir.2013) (quotation, alteration, and citation omitted). The parties agree that Minnesota substantive law applies.

In Minnesota, a plaintiff who asserts a strict products liability claim must demonstrate “that (1) the product was in fact in a defective condition, unreasonably dangerous for its intended use; (2) such defect existed when the product left defendant’s control; and (3) the defect was the proximate cause of the injury sustained.” Lee v. Crookston Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 290 Minn. 321, 188 N.W.2d 426, 432 (1971). To recover on a negligence theory, the plaintiff must show “(1) the existence of a duty of care; (2) a breach of that duty; (3) an injury; and (4) the breach of the duty being the proximate cause of the injury.” Schafer v. JLC Food Sys., Inc., 695 N.W.2d 570, 573 (Minn.2005). The Supreme Court of Minnesota has stated that, in the design defect context, there is little or no distinction between strict liability and negligence. See Lee, 188 N.W.2d at 432 (“While in conventional tort terms no proof of negligence is necessary [in a strict products liability action], in many cases proof of a defect may simply be a substitute word for negligence.”); see also Piotrowski v. Southworth Prods. Corp., 15 F.3d 748, 751 (8th Cir.1994) (“Where design defect cases are involved, Minnesota merges the theories of strict liability and negligence.”) (citation omitted).

The Supreme Court of Minnesota has explained:

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Bluebook (online)
748 F.3d 845, 2014 WL 1876124, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carol-mack-v-stryker-corporation-ca8-2014.