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Case Briefing
Suicide Can't Be Blamed on Pfizer's Failure to Warn
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that a product defect claim based on insufficient warnings cannot survive summary judgment if stronger warnings would not have altered the conduct of the prescribing physician. Motus v. Pfizer Inc., 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 1944 (9th Cir. 2/9/04).
Plaintiff claimed that her husband suffered from an adverse reaction to the drug Zoloft', leading him to commit suicide. She argued that Pfizer, as Zoloft's manufacturer, was liable because the company failed to provide adequate warnings to doctors of alleged side effects associated with the antidepressant. The district court granted Pfizer's motion for summary judgment, holding that plaintiff failed to establish a sufficient causal link between her husband's suicide and Pfizer's conduct. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, finding that warnings for the drug were intended to be read by the prescribing physician, not the end-user of the product. Because the physician in the present case testified that he didn't read the warning literature at all, a stronger warning would have had no effect on the decedent's care. Thus, even if the warnings should have been stronger, the lack of such a warning was not a proximate cause of decedent's suicide.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?