Reeves v. AcroMed Corp.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 8, 1995
Docket93-03752
StatusPublished

This text of Reeves v. AcroMed Corp. (Reeves v. AcroMed Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reeves v. AcroMed Corp., (5th Cir. 1995).

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals,

Fifth Circuit.

No. 93-3752.

Dorothy Marie REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

ACROMED CORPORATION, et al., Defendants,

Acromed Corporation, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

Feb. 10, 1995.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before JOHNSON, HIGGINBOTHAM and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.

W. EUGENE DAVIS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from a products liability action filed by

the appellee, Dorothy Marie Reeves ("Reeves"), alleging that a

metal bone implant manufactured and marketed by the appellant,

AcroMed Corporation ("AcroMed") exacerbated injuries in her back.

The central issue presented on appeal is whether the Medical Device

Amendments (the "MDAs") to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21

U.S.C. §§ 301 et seq. (the "Act"), preempt Reeves' claim that

AcroMed failed to adequately warn her and her physician of the

implant's dangers. AcroMed also challenges the evidentiary

sufficiency of Reeves' defective manufacturing, defective design,

and unreasonably dangerous per se claims. For the reasons stated

below, we conclude that Reeves' failure-to-warn claim is preempted

and that Reeves failed to produce sufficient evidence to recover on

her defective manufacturing and defective design theories. We thus

vacate the district court's judgment and remand this case for

1 retrial of Reeves' action predicated on her unreasonably dangerous

per se theory of recovery.

I.

In December 1985, Dorothy Marie Reeves seriously injured her

back. In an effort to correct Reeves' condition, her neurosurgeon

attempted a complicated surgical procedure designed to fuse the

vertebrae at the four levels of the spine affected by the injury.

As part of this surgery, Reeves' neurosurgeon implanted metal bone

plates and screws manufactured by AcroMed to secure Reeves'

vertebrae while the bone fused. Reeves' condition initially

improved after the surgery. X-rays taken of Reeves' back

throughout the two years following surgery revealed no

complications. Six months after the surgery, however, Reeves

complained of increasing pain in her back that had not existed

before the surgery. In December 1991, Reeves filed the present

suit contending that AcroMed's metal bone implant broke and

prevented the bones in her spine from fusing. She based her claim

on a number of theories, including negligence, strict liability,

breach of warranty, and battery. However, Reeves' primary theory

at trial was that AcroMed failed to warn her that the Food and Drug

Administration (the "FDA") never approved AcroMed's implant for use

in the spine except as part of a controlled investigational study.

At the close of trial, the district court submitted three

special interrogatories on liability to the jury. The jury found

AcroMed's device unreasonably dangerous as a spinal implant and

that AcroMed did not legally obtain FDA approval to market its

2 device as a spinal implant. The jury also found that Reeves would

not have permitted her surgeon to implant AcroMed's device if she

had known that the device was unapproved for use in the spine.1

The jury assessed Reeves' damages at $475,000, and the district

court entered judgment on the verdict against AcroMed for that

amount.

The district court instructed the jury that they could find

AcroMed's product unreasonably dangerous and answer Interrogatory

One "Yes" based on any of Reeves' four theories of recovery:

defective design, defective manufacturing, failure-to-warn, and the

"unreasonably dangerous per se" doctrine. AcroMed contends that

the evidence is insufficient to support Reeves' recovery on three

of the four theories submitted to the jury: defective

1 The jury answered the interrogatories as follows:

INTERROGATORY NO. ONE:

Was the AcroMed product implanted in Dorothy Reeves' spine unreasonably dangerous as a spinal implant?

YES X NO

INTERROGATORY NO. TWO:

Did AcroMed legally obtain FDA approval for the AcroMed product to be implanted in the spine except in an investigative or experimental program, prior to the time it was implanted in Dorothy Reeves?

YES NO X

INTERROGATORY NO. THREE:

If Dorothy Reeves had been informed that the AcroMed product was experimental and under investigation would she have permitted it to be implanted in her back?

3 manufacturing, defective design, and the unreasonably dangerous per

se doctrine. AcroMed further maintains that the MDAs preempt

Reeves' failure-to-warn claim.

II.

When a district court submits two or more alternative grounds

for recovery to the jury on a single interrogatory and the

plaintiff prevails, we ordinarily order a new trial if one of the

grounds for recovery is "legally inadequate." Walther v. Lone Star

Gas Co., 952 F.2d 119, 126 (5th Cir.1992); Pan Eastern Exploration

v. Hufo Oils, 855 F.2d 1106, 1123 (5th Cir.1988). In such a case,

"the reviewing court cannot determine whether the jury based its

verdict on a sound or unsound theory." Pan Eastern Exploration,

855 F.2d at 1123; Hayes v. Solomon, 597 F.2d 958, 985 (5th

Cir.1979) (holding that "the very real likelihood that the jury may

have utilized an unproven or improper theory of liability to reach

its verdict mandates reversal"). In the present case, the district

court submitted four of Reeves' theories of recovery under the

first interrogatory. The first interrogatory inquires whether

AcroMed's product was "unreasonably dangerous as a spinal implant."

The court instructed the jury that proof of one or more of Reeves'

four theories of recovery was sufficient for an affirmative answer

to the first interrogatory. Thus, if the court erroneously

submitted one of the legal theories of recovery to the jury and the

form of the interrogatory prevents us from determining upon which

theory the jury based its verdict, we must vacate the judgment.

Hufo, 855 F.2d at 1123.

4 AcroMed's primary contention on appeal is that the district

court erroneously submitted Reeves' failure-to-warn theory of

recovery to the jury. According to AcroMed, Reeves'

failure-to-warn claim is legally inadequate because it is preempted

by the MDAs. We now turn to the merits of AcroMed's preemption

argument.

III.

A.

Reeves' produced evidence at trial that AcroMed failed to warn

her or her doctor that its metal bone implant was not FDA approved

for use in the spine. This evidence is the basis of her

failure-to-warn claim.

The MDAs establish two separate approval processes for medical

devices: Pre-Market Approval and Pre-Market Notification. The

FDA's Pre-Market Approval process applies to new medical devices

introduced after May 28, 1976, the date the MDAs were enacted.

This process is lengthy and involves extensive investigation by the

FDA. The FDA's Pre-Market Approval application requires

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