Gray v. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.

82 F. App'x 639
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedDecember 3, 2003
Docket02-7079
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 82 F. App'x 639 (Gray v. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gray v. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., 82 F. App'x 639 (10th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

BRORBY, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Carla Gray claims the prescription drug Accutane caused her to experience severe depression. She sued Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, and Roche Laboratories, Inc., the drug’s distributor (collectively “Roche”), 1 in federal court. The suit resulted in a jury verdict in favor of Roche. This appeal followed. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

Roche manufactures and distributes Accutane, a prescription drug commonly used to treat acne. Ms. Gray took Accutane to treat acne for a number of years and claims to have suffered from severe depression during that time. Believing Accutane caused her depression, Ms. Gray filed a complaint against Roche based on diversity jurisdiction in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. She alleged Roche was liable because it failed to adequately warn either her or her doctor about Accutane’s possible psychiatric side effects. Ms. Gray proceeded under three Oklahoma state law causes of action: (1) manufacturer’s products liability; (2) negligence; and (3) breach of express and implied warranties. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Roche.

On appeal, Ms. Gray raises five arguments. She believes the trial court: (1) erred in a number of evidentiary rulings during her examination of Dr. McCauley, her treating physician; (2) erred in a number of evidentiary rulings during her cross-examination of one of Roche’s expert witnesses, Dr. Gudas; (3) erred in excluding evidence of Ms. Gray’s daughter’s experience with Accutane and depression; (4) erred in excluding evidence relating to Roche’s alleged profit motive for not issuing a stronger Accutane warning; and (5) erred in rejecting a jury instruction she proposed.

We review a trial court’s evidentiary rulings and jury instructions for an abuse of discretion. Hinds v. Gen. Motors Corp., 988 F.2d 1039, 1046-47 (10th Cir.1993). We will only find an abuse of discretion if the trial court’s decision “was based on a clearly erroneous finding of fact or an erroneous conclusion of law or manifests a clear error of judgment.” Cartier v. Jackson, 59 F.3d 1046, 1048 (10th Cir.1995). Even if we find an abuse of discretion, we will disturb the jury’s verdict only if the error affected “a substantial right of the party.” Fed.R.Evid. 103(a). See also *644 Fed.R.Civ.P. 61. Under these standards, we consider Ms. Gray’s arguments in turn.

I. EXAMINATION OF DR. MCCAU-LEY

Ms. Gray claims the trial court committed a number of evidentiary errors during her examination of her treating physician, Dr. McCauley. Ms. Gray hoped to prove Roche should have warned Dr. McCauley of Accutane’s alleged psychological side effects “[a]nd, in turn, these warnings should have been given by Dr. McCauley to [Ms. Gray].” To establish Roche proximately caused her alleged injuries, Ms. Gray needed to demonstrate that “had [Roche] issued a proper warning to [Dr. McCauley], he would have altered his behavior and the injury would have been avoided.” Eck v. Parke, Davis & Co., 256 F.3d 1013, 1018 (10th Cir.2001). Ms. Gray believes the trial court prevented her from making this showing by: (a) sustaining objections during her examination of Dr. McCauley, and (b) granting (in part) Roche’s motion in limine to exclude “evidence regarding changes made to Accutane product warnings and communications after the conclusion of Ms. Gray’s treatment with Accutane.”

a. Sustained Objections

First, Ms. Gray claims the trial court erred in sustaining Roche’s “asked and answered” objections. Ms. Gray described two specific warnings she believes Roche should have issued, and asked Dr. McCauley whether he would have followed them. Dr. McCauley responded, “it depends.” He went on to explain:

[W]e don’t rotely just follow instructions from drug companies. There are a lot of other things that go into evaluation of drugs with known and unknown side effects. So we would have taken this into account, but we also temper it with the experience that the patient is relating to us; also in regards to what other, what our own experience is with other patients....
And also in regard to other literature that we may be reading, and the experiences that we have, our shared experiences that we had with colleagues. So we don’t just rote do what the drug companies tell us. We do it, we take this certainly into consideration, and we put it into the rest of the equation in regards to the information that we visit with our patients about and also counsel them in regards to the medications.

Apparently dissatisfied with his response, Ms. Gray immediately repeated her question. Roche objected on grounds the question had been asked and answered, and the trial court sustained. Throughout the remainder of her examination of Dr. McCauley, Ms. Gray repeatedly asked slight variations of this same question. The trial court sustained a number of Roche’s objections on grounds the question had been asked and answered. 2

Trial courts may prohibit litigants from asking witnesses repetitive questions. Fed.R.Evid. 611(a) (instructing courts to “exercise reasonable control ... so as to ... avoid needless consumption of time”); Fed.R.Evid. 403 (recognizing courts’ discretion to exclude evidence “if its probative value is substantially outweighed ... by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence”). See, e.g., Bragg v. Foretravel, Inc., 652 F.2d 39, 40 (10th Cir.1981) *645 (holding a “trial court properly exercised its discretion in order to prevent repetitive questioning and needless consumption of judicial time”). Here, Dr. McCauley obviously did not provide the answer Ms. Gray hoped to elicit. However, he did reply to the question with an appropriate answer. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by prohibiting the repetitive questions.

Ms. Gray next complains the trial judge should have permitted her to ask Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
82 F. App'x 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-hoffman-la-roche-inc-ca10-2003.