CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A federal judge has ruled in favor of a manufacturer in a lawsuit brought by a Texas woman who claimed her pelvic pain was caused by implanted surgical mesh.
U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin on Tuesday dismissed Carolyn Lewis’ lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon in the middle of a jury trial that began Feb. 10.
The 2012 lawsuit alleged that the pelvic mesh has high rates of failure and can shrink, degrade or break off in the body.
Ethicon contends the mesh is safe. Ethicon spokesman Matthew Johnson called Goodwin’s ruling a “sound decision.”
The lawsuit was transferred to West Virginia as part of a federal, multidistrict litigation. Goodwin selected it and several others from thousands of lawsuits, to serve as bellwether cases.
In August, a federal jury in Charleston, W. Va., awarded a Georgia woman $2 million in damages in her lawsuit against medical device maker C.R. Bard. That case was the first to go to trial. Later that month, another woman reached an undisclosed settlement against C.R. Bard in a separate lawsuit.
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