Stephen Horrillo v. Cook Incorporated

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 7, 2010
Docket10-15327
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
Stephen Horrillo v. Cook Incorporated, (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 1 of 21

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 10-15327 ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 0:08-cv-60931-LRJ

STEPHEN HORRILLO, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Margaret Horrillo,

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant,

versus

COOK INCORPORATED, d.b.a. Cook Medical, llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee. ________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________

(November 7, 2012)

Before WILSON, PRYOR and MARTIN, Circuit Judges. Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 2 of 21

MARTIN, Circuit Judge:

Mr. Stephen Horrillo, as the personal representative of the Estate of Ms.

Margaret Horrillo, appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor

of Cook Incorporated in this product liability action.

I.

On May 31, 2007, Dr. Michael Rush performed an angioplasty and inserted

a Formula 418 biliary stent into Ms. Horrillo’s renal artery to treat her arterial

stenosis.1 The surgery was performed at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale,

Florida. Although Dr. Rush considered the procedure a success in the hours

immediately after surgery, Ms. Horrillo suffered a non-hemorrhagic stroke within

twenty-four hours of the procedure, which resulted in serious injuries.

The Formula 418 biliary stent that Dr. Rush used was manufactured by

Cook Incorporated. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the

stent for biliary use, but had not approved its use in renal arteries. This being the

case, Cook included the following disclosures in the stent’s instructions for use.

First, it stated that the device was “intended for use in palliation of malignant

neoplasms in the biliary tree,” which is to say, treatment for cancer in the bile

1 On a motion for summary judgment, the facts shown are viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and all inferences are drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. 477 U.S. 242, 252-55, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 2512-14 (1986).

2 Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 3 of 21

ducts. Second, under a heading entitled, “WARNINGS,” the instructions for use

cautioned that “[t]he safety and effectiveness of this device for use in the vascular

system have not been established.”2

Depositions in this case suggest that it was common knowledge that biliary

stents, like Cook’s, were frequently used “off-label” to facilitate peripheral

circulation, including in the renal arteries. In fact, Dr. Rush stated during his

deposition that he had performed many angioplasty procedures and had previously

used the Formula 418 biliary stent to treat arterial stenosis, to the point where he

felt experienced with its off-label use.

In February 2007, the FDA contacted various medical device manufacturers,

including Cook, to attend a meeting because of the extensive off-label use of

biliary stents and the high rate of bad medical outcomes reported in connection

with that off-label use. The FDA cited complications including “air embolism,

seizure, stroke and death.” For Cook, forty percent of the adverse medical

incidents associated with its Formula 418 biliary stent originated in off-label use.

The FDA held the meeting with the stent manufacturers, including Cook, on

March 12, 2007. On October 18, 2007, Cook sent a letter to Holy Cross

2 Cook eventually filed an application with the FDA to approve the use of the Formula 418 stent in renal arteries, but the application had not been approved at the time this lawsuit was filed.

3 Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 4 of 21

Hospital—where Dr. Rush had performed Ms. Horrillo’s surgery on May 31,

2007—warning of the risks associated with the off-label use of the biliary stent.

Among the risks listed in the October 2007 letter was stroke.

II.

In January 2008, Ms. Horrillo filed a complaint against Cook in Florida

state court, asserting claims for negligence, strict liability, and breach of warranty

under Florida law. Cook removed the case to the District Court for the Southern

District of Florida on the basis of diversity jurisdiction.

In August 2010, Cook filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that

Ms. Horrillo had failed to demonstrate that Cook was the proximate cause of the

harm she suffered. Relying on the learned intermediary doctrine, Cook argued

that because Dr. Rush was aware of the risks associated with the angioplasty

procedure, Ms. Horrillo could not demonstrate that Dr. Rush would not have used

the stent if either he or Horrillo had been warned by the manufacturer of its risks.

In support of this argument, Cook cited Dr. Rush’s deposition, as well as an

affidavit that the doctor filed on behalf of Cook. In his deposition, Dr. Rush

explained:

I didn’t think there was anything that I would be doing in her renal artery that might cause increased or an excessive risk of a stroke. The things that I might do to cause her to have a stroke, potentially,

4 Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 5 of 21

might be if I shut the renal artery down, occluded it completely, if she had a hypertensive spike, that is, a spike in high blood pressure, and she would bleed into her brain.

That’s a possibility but a remote risk, and I felt that any type of risk like that was worth the possible benefit of the procedure.

In his affidavit, Dr. Rush averred that he elected to use the device as a matter of

his own clinical judgment. The magistrate judge granted Cook’s motion.3 The

magistrate judge reasoned that Dr. Rush was “fully aware that [the] stent was not

approved for renal use; he was familiar with the risks associated with the device’s

use including stroke, which he believed to be ‘remote’; [and] he was immensely

experienced in performing renal stenosis surgeries . . . .” Based on this, the judge

held that the learned intermediary doctrine applied as a matter of law. Ms.

Horrillo appealed the grant of summary judgment. After filing her notice of

appeal, Ms. Horrillo passed away. We have since granted a motion to substitute

her son, Mr. Stephen Horrillo, as the personal representative of her estate,

pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(a)(1).

III.

This Court reviews de novo a grant of summary judgment. Fitzpatrick v.

City of Atlanta, 2 F.3d 1112, 1117 (11th Cir. 1993). Summary judgment is proper

3 The parties consented to the exercise of jurisdiction by a magistrate judge, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636.

5 Case: 10-15327 Date Filed: 11/07/2012 Page: 6 of 21

only if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is

entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). “In reviewing a

grant of summary judgment, we resolve all ambiguities and draw reasonable

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