Datil v. C. R. Bard, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 2020
Docket1:19-cv-08274
StatusUnknown

This text of Datil v. C. R. Bard, Inc. (Datil v. C. R. Bard, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Datil v. C. R. Bard, Inc., (N.D. Ill. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

MARISOL DATIL, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) No. 19 C 8274 v. ) ) Judge Sara L. Ellis C.R. BARD, INC., ) ) Defendant. )

OPINION AND ORDER After experiencing complications from an implanted Align Urethral Support System (“Align”) manufactured by Defendant C.R. Bard, Inc. (“Bard”), Plaintiff Marisol Datil filed claims against Bard directly in the C.R. Bard, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Multi-District Litigation 2187 (“Bard MDL”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Datil asserts claims for negligence (Count I), strict liability design defect (Count II), strict liability manufacturing defect (Count III), strict liability failure to warn (Count IV), breach of express warranty (Count V), breach of implied warranty (Count VI), and punitive damages (Count VIII). The Bard MDL court transferred Datil’s case to this Court on December 17, 2019. Before the Court is Bard’s motion for partial summary judgment, which asks the Court to enter judgment in Bard’s favor on all but the strict liability design defect and punitive damages claims. Datil does not contest the negligence and strict liability manufacturing defect claims and the negligent inspection, marketing, packaging, and selling claim (parts of Count I and Count III). Because issues of fact remain concerning Datil’s claims for negligent and strict liability failure to warn (part of Count I and Count IV) and breach of express and implied warranties (Counts V and VI), those claims must proceed to trial. BACKGROUND I. Compliance with Summary Judgment Requirements As an initial matter, the Court must address Bard’s motion to strike Datil’s statement of additional facts. Bard first argues that the Court should disregard the additional facts, which

Datil appended to the parties’ joint statement of undisputed facts, because Datil deviated from the Court’s summary judgment procedures. But both parties appear not to have fully understood the Court’s summary judgment procedures. These summary judgment procedures differ from Local Rule 56.1, in that this Court requires the parties to submit a joint statement of undisputed facts. See Sweatt v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 796 F.3d 701, 711–12 (7th Cir. 2015) (affirming this Court’s summary judgment procedures). The party opposing summary judgment may submit additional facts it contends demonstrate a genuine issue of material fact in its response, providing citations to supporting material. Judge Sara L. Ellis, Case Procedures, Summary Judgment Practice, https://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/judge-info.aspx?VyU/OurKKJRDT+FUM5tZmA==. The joint statement of undisputed facts, however, should include undisputed facts proffered by

both parties, not only agreed facts that the moving party deems relevant. Although the parties may disagree on the inferences to be drawn from the undisputed facts, to the extent admissible evidence supports a proposed fact, a party cannot refuse to stipulate to that fact on the basis that it deems the fact “not material” or “irrelevant.” Id. Here, although Bard may disagree with the relevance of Datil’s “additional facts,” it does not argue that the evidence does not support these facts. Instead, without any articulated disagreement with the content of the statements, Bard refused to agree to their inclusion in the joint statement and reserved the right to respond to the additional facts after Datil filed her response brief. Bard then filed a motion to strike Datil’s additional facts in conjunction with its reply brief, necessitating further briefing of that motion after the parties completed briefing the substance of the summary judgment motion. The Court’s procedures are designed to avoid this exact situation. Bard should have raised any objections to the additional facts prior to filing its summary judgment motion so that the Court could address them before the parties briefed Bard’s

motion for summary judgment. Nonetheless, the Court briefly considers Bard’s objections that go to the admissibility of the evidence on which Datil relies for her additional facts. “Evidence offered at summary judgment must be admissible to the same extent as at trial, at least if the opposing party objects, except that testimony can be presented in the form of affidavits or transcripts of sworn testimony rather than in person.” Baines v. Walgreen Co., 863 F.3d 656, 662 (7th Cir. 2017); Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(2) (“A party may object that the material cited to support or dispute a fact cannot be presented in a form that would be admissible in evidence.”). “Documents must be authenticated by an affidavit that lays a proper foundation for their admissibility, even at the summary judgment stage.” Steffek v. Client Servs., Inc., 948 F.3d 761, 769 (7th Cir. 2020). “Courts are entitled to rely on lawyers to decide which potential

objections are worth raising and which are not,” and parties and courts often overlook the authentication requirement at the summary judgment stage. Cehovic-Dixneuf v. Wong, 895 F.3d 927, 932 (7th Cir. 2018) (“[W]hen one side fails to cross all evidentiary t’s and dot all procedural i’s—it is also not unusual for opposing lawyers to choose to overlook available evidentiary or other procedural objections. . . . . [M]any such defects in summary judgment evidence could be cured quickly with a supplemental affidavit or two.”). Here, however, because Bard raises objections to Datil’s submission of several unauthenticated documents, the Court must resolve the objections. Steffek, 948 F.3d at 769 (“[T]he court may not simply ignore an objection to evidence the court will rely upon for its decision.”). Bard argues that Datil relies on the following unauthenticated documents: (1) medical records from her revision surgery, (2) the Phillips Sumika material safety data sheet (“MSDS”) for Marlex polypropylene, and (3) a September 2, 2008 Bard inter-office memorandum (the “Orr Memorandum”). In response to Bard’s motion to strike, Datil puts forth evidence she claims authenticates these documents.1 With respect to the medical records, Datil points out that Dr.

Alshahrour brought the records with him to his deposition and has personal knowledge of them. As for the MSDS, Datil submits excerpts of the deposition of the corporate representative for Phillips Sumika Polypropylene Company regarding the subject matter of the MSDS. Similarly, Datil presents an excerpt from the deposition of Robert Orr, the author of the Orr Memorandum, in which he discusses that document. Although Datil could have done a better job of authenticating these documents at the summary judgment stage, because these individuals can testify that each “item is what it is claimed to be” based on their knowledge of the documents and Bard does not raise any specific argument that these documents are not in fact genuine, the Court finds that Datil has sufficiently authenticated the documents to allow the Court to consider

them here. Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(1); see Quinn v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., No. 3:17-CV- 00669-NJR, 2020 WL 888048, at *2 (S.D. Ill. Feb. 24, 2020) (“Courts in the past have frowned upon mere pro forma objections based on authenticity without any indication that the evidence may not in fact be genuine.”). The Court therefore denies Bard’s motion to strike and proceeds to recount the facts before the Court.

1 Although Bard argues in reply that the Court should disregard the additional support provided by Datil to authenticate these documents, the Seventh Circuit has approved of a party supplementing the record to cure authentication issues.

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Datil v. C. R. Bard, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/datil-v-c-r-bard-inc-ilnd-2020.