ting out potential claims that individual plaintiffs may adopt through short-form complaints. It identifies a range of Covidien devices and alleges that the products were defectively designed or inadequately tested, marketed, and labeled. Those remain plaintiffs’ allegations, and Covidien
disputes them.
The complaint alleges that patients implanted with the devices may experience complications including adhesions to internal organs, chronic inflammation, infection, bowel obstruction, recurrent hernias, chronic pain, and the need for corrective or revision surgery. It also alleges that complete removal may be impossible and that removal may not fully resolve a patient’ s complications.
The court appointed O’ Brien and Stokes as Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel in September 2023. The leadership order applies to all current and future cases made part of the MDL and charges the appointed lawyers with advancing the litigation efficiently and justly.
At trial, Stokes, now of Stokes &
Hobbs, served as co-counsel and handled the key expert witnesses. Levin Papantonio attorneys Alex Taylor and Caleb Cunningham helped develop trial testimony, including testimony from Patterson’ s implanting surgeon that supported the failure-to-warn theory.
“ THIS SIGNIFICANT VERDICT IS THE DIRECT PRODUCT OF THE CLEAR LIABILITY AND THE VERY SIGNIFICANT DAMAGES INVOLVED.”--KELSEY STOKES
Timothy M. O’ Brien, a shareholder with Levin Papantonio and Plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel in the Covidien hernia mesh MDL, served as lead trial counsel for Larry and Tammy Patterson in the first bellwether case to reach a jury.
Bellwether trials are selected to test recurring evidence and legal arguments before representative juries. Their verdicts bind only the individual parties in the case, but the results can affect how lawyers and clients evaluate other cases, approach future trials, and assess possible settlement ranges.
Before the Patterson trial began in July, O’ Brien described the case’ s purpose in terms that proved prescient.
“ What we’ re looking to do here is sound the alarm,” he said.“ Tell the folks at Medtronic that there are thousands of cases behind this one.”
A New Settlement Calculation
O’ Brien cautioned against treating the verdict as merely the next data point in a long line of mesh cases. In his view, its size, its position as the first Covidien bellwether, and the similarity between Patterson’ s allegations and those of many other plaintiffs make it qualitatively different.
“ This is not just the next verdict in hernia mesh,” he said.“ This verdict was built on the testimony of the corporate witnesses who made significant key concessions on the fundamental characteristics of this mesh device and the others like it. Those admissions are now and forever.” Stokes added,“ This significant verdict is the direct product of the clear liability and the very significant damages involved.”
O’ Brien’ s assessment is necessarily that of plaintiffs’ counsel, and the verdict does not establish the value or validity of any other claim. Each plaintiff must still prove that a particular product caused a particular injury under the law governing that case.
Yet bellwethers are designed to supply information, and the Patterson verdict supplied it emphatically. The result showed how one jury evaluated the duration of the Symbotex collagen barrier, the information provided to Patterson’ s surgeon, the competing causation evidence, and the defense effort to attribute the outcome to the physician or patient.
The next bellwether had not been assigned a firm date when O’ Brien spoke following the verdict, although he said the Court had indicated that it wanted another trial during the fall of 2026.
Medtronic indicated that it intends to appeal or file a motion for new trial, according to O’ Brien. His response reflected the confidence of a trial lawyer who believed the record had been carefully built and carefully tried.
“ Good luck with that,” O’ Brien said.“ The district judge was so careful and measured with all of her rulings, some of which came our way and some of which went their way. This is a fair and just verdict based upon the law.”
Whatever occurs on appeal, in the next bellwether, or in future settlement discussions, the first Covidien jury has now spoken. For Larry and Tammy Patterson, the verdict was compensation for injuries and losses the jury found warranted $ 88 million.
For the thousands of plaintiffs behind them, it was the first opportunity to see the core allegations tested in a courtroom.
For Medtronic and Covidien, it was the alarm O’ Brien had promised to sound.
58 The Trial Lawyer