Cosgrove v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

788 P.2d 1293, 117 Idaho 470, 1990 Ida. LEXIS 42
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1990
Docket17451
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 788 P.2d 1293 (Cosgrove v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cosgrove v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 788 P.2d 1293, 117 Idaho 470, 1990 Ida. LEXIS 42 (Idaho 1990).

Opinions

BAKES, Chief Justice.

Plaintiffs Linda Winfree and her daughter, Sally Cosgrove, sued defendant Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Merrell Dow), for birth defects suffered by Cosgrove, allegedly as a result of Winfree’s ingestion of the “anti-morning sickness” drug, Bendectin, during her pregnancy. This is one of a series of Bendectin cases filed nationwide. Summary judgment was granted for defendant on Winfree’s individual claims because the I.C. § 5-219(4) 2-year statute of limitations had run. The claims of infant Cosgrove, however, were not barred by the statute of limitations, and those claims continued to trial. The jury returned a unanimous special verdict for defendant Merrell Dow, finding that Bendectin was not the proximate cause of Cos-grove’s birth defects. Judgment was entered accordingly and plaintiffs appeal. We affirm.

I

Plaintiff Linda Cosgrove Winfree (Win-free) conceived plaintiff Sally Cosgrove (Sally) on approximately March 24, 1975. Early in her pregnancy Winfree began experiencing nausea and vomiting. While on a family vacation in California, on April 17, 1975, Winfree was seen at the St. Francis Hospital emergency room in Santa Barbara, and she obtained a prescription for Bendectin there. Winfree subsequently ingested Bendectin to treat her morning sickness. Sally was born on December 17, 1975, missing her left forearm and hand. It is alleged that Winfree’s ingestion of Bendectin was the cause of Sally’s birth defects. Bendectin was manufactured and distributed on the American market by defendant Merrell Dow from 1956 until June 9, 1983, on which date its production was suspended worldwide.

Plaintiffs initiated this action on September 13, 1983, seeking both compensatory and punitive damages. Defendant Merrell Dow answered and, after extensive discovery, moved for summary judgment on [473]*473Winfree’s individual claims. The court granted the motion because Winfree’s claim was time barred under I.C. § 5-219(4). Just prior to trial the court dismissed all of the “Doe” defendants, at which time defendant Merrell Dow removed the case to federal court, based upon diversity of citizenship. Ultimately, the case was remanded to state court. Trial commenced on February 2, 1988, and took approximately five weeks. On March 10, 1988, the jury returned a unanimous special verdict in favor of defendant Merrell Dow, finding that Bendectin was not the proximate cause of Sally Cosgrove’s injuries. Judgment was entered on both plaintiffs’ claims on March 22, 1988. Plaintiffs appeal.

II

Appellants raise numerous issues on appeal. Most of the issues concern the admission or rejection of evidence, much of it offered through expert witnesses. Accordingly, we preface our analysis by reviewing the discretionary authority granted to trial judges regarding rulings on the admission. of evidence. The applicable law was recently set out in Soria v. Sierra Pacific Airlines, Inc., 111 Idaho 594, 606, 726 P.2d 706, 718 (1986):

Idaho grants trial judges “broad discretion as to the admission of evidence and the exercise of that discretion will not be overturned absent the clear showing of abuse. Cheney v. Palos Verdes Investment Corp., 104 Idaho 897, 900, 665 P.2d 661, 664 (1983). (Citations omitted) (emphasis added.) Trial judges also are granted broad discretion in determining relevancy.” [Citations omitted.]

The trial court’s broad discretion particularly applies to the admission of expert testimony, IHC Hospitals, Inc. v. Board of Comm’rs, 108 Idaho 136, 697 P.2d 1150 (1985), and that discretion will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of abuse:

Admissibility of expert opinion testimony is discretionary with the trial court and will not be disturbed absent a showing of an abuse of discretion.

Stoddard v. Nelson, 99 Idaho 293, 297, 581 P.2d 339, 343 (1978).

With the applicable standard of review in mind, we begin by discussing four evidentiary issues concerning (1) excluding evidence of warnings on other products; (2) precluding evidence of advertisements which allegedly proved over-promotion; (3) precluding evidence that Merrell Dow had removed Bendectin from the market; and (4) evidence of habit. Preliminarily, we note that each of these issues were rendered essentially moot by the unanimous jury verdict which found that the drug Bendectin was not the proximate cause of the plaintiff Cosgrove’s birth defects. The excluded evidence was directed to issues which the jury did not reach because of its express finding that Bendectin was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s birth defects. Therefore, even if the trial court’s rulings had been erroneous, they would have been harmless error. Nevertheless, we will review each of the trial court’s rulings on these evidentiary matters.

First, the trial court did not err when it precluded the introduction of testimony regarding other Merrell Dow drugs, MER/29 and Thalidomide, which plaintiff claimed arguably showed a habit of fraud, falsification of scientific data, and a general pattern of deceit as to the FDA and the consuming public. The trial court rejected the claim of a general pattern and found that the proffered evidence was not sufficiently probative and did not bear “any relevance to any issue properly before the court and jury in this case.” Trial judges are granted broad discretion in determining relevancy, and on this record we can find no clear abuse of discretion in her ruling regarding the probative value and the relevancy of that evidence.

Next, the trial court did not err in precluding plaintiffs from mentioning the fact that Bendectin was no longer available on the market after Merrell Dow ceased production of it. The fact that Merrell Dow ceased the production of Bendectin did not tend to prove a fact at issue in the trial more or less probable. I.R.E. 407 precludes the introduction of post-event [474]*474conduct to prove negligence. As I.R.E. 407 states, “Whenever, after an event, measures are taken which, if taken previously, would have made the event less likely to occur, evidence of the subsequent measures is not admissible to prove negligence or culpable conduct in connection with the event.”

Third, the trial court did not err in allegedly precluding the use of advertisements and the testimony of Merrell Dow’s salesmen to prove over-promotion of Bendectin in support of plaintiffs’ claim that Merrell Dow negligently failed to warn of the possible consequences of taking Bendectin. Plaintiff argued that evidence of over-promotion was admissible in support of its claims of strict liability and negligence. We need not resolve the issue of whether evidence of over-promotion of a drug is relevant evidence in proving claims of strict liability or of negligently failing to warn of the dangers in the drug. Contrary to appellants’ allegations, we note that Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 102C (Merrell Dow advertisement for Bendectin) was admitted, and that the advertisement was used by two of plaintiffs’ witnesses; it was also used to cross examine Dr. Goddard, an expert witness for the defense. We find no clear error in the trial court’s handling of this issue.

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788 P.2d 1293, 117 Idaho 470, 1990 Ida. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cosgrove-v-merrell-dow-pharmaceuticals-inc-idaho-1990.