Disclaimer: Results of this case are not necessarily indicative of future cases.
A Delaware jury awarded a 51-year old bank teller $100 million over physical and emotional injuries she sustained from Boston Scientific’s vaginal mesh inserts. The $100 million settlement, one of the largest jury verdicts of 2015, consists of $25 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. The jury decided Boston Scientific was guilty of selling a defectively designed product as well as failing to alert doctors once the defects became known.
“The jury spoke loudly and clearly that Boston Scientific’s defective devices injured Mrs. Deborah Barba and many other women and they should step and take responsibility for causing that harm,” said Fred Thompson, one of her lawyers. “Deborah’s case will hopefully bring more awareness of mesh issues, however, no woman and her loved ones should have to endure the stress of going to trial and baring their souls publicly to achieve justice,” Fidelma Fitzpatrick said, Barba’s other lawyer.
The verdict is surprising because it came in Delaware, the most corporate-friendly state in the nation.
Many of the more than 70,000 mesh-insert cases have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in Charleston, West Virginia. Others have been filed in state courts in Delaware, New Jersey, Missouri, Texas and California.
The Delaware case is Barba v. Boston Scientific Corp., CA 11C-08-050-MMJ, Superior Court of Delaware (Wilmington).
Boston Scientific agreed to pay the $119 million to resolve nearly 3,000 cases collected by a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers led by Houston litigator David Matthews in April. The settlement provided an average payout of about $40,000 per case.