Colorado Federal Court Considers Motion to Dismiss in Knee Replacement Case

As you know, we here at Abnormal Use love writing and blogging, so much so that our editor Jim Dedman is now contributing posts to other venues.  Recently, his piece, “Colorado Federal Court Considers Motion to Dismiss in Knee Replacement Case,” was published in an October 2014 issue of the Defense Research Institute’s The Voice. Here are the first two paragraphs of the article:

Recently, a Colorado federal court considered a motion to dismiss in a medical device product liability action arising from a plaintiff’s allergic reaction to a cobalt and nickel knee replacement system. See Haffner v. Stryker Corp., et al, No. 14-CV-00186, 2014 WL 4821107 (D. Colo. Sept. 29, 2014) (unpublished). Observing that there appeared to be “few medical device tort cases in Colorado,” the court addressed the defendant’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s four causes of action: strict product liability, negligent product liability, the breach of implied warranties of merchantability and fitness, and the breach of an express warranty.

The case arose after the plaintiff underwent a surgical procedure in which his left knee was removed and replaced with a knee system manufactured by Stryker Corporation. The plaintiff alleged that he was unaware of his apparent allergy to cobalt and nickel, certain components of the system. As a result of his allergy, he experienced a reaction that caused “pain, inflammation, swelling, bone loss, and limited mobility.” He ultimately underwent a revision surgery to ameliorate the issue and to replace the original knee system. The plaintiff filed a product liability lawsuit in the state court in Colorado, but as you might suspect, the defendants removed the case to the federal court.

You can read the rest of the article here.