Deals & Cases

Jones Day secures complete defense verdict For Mentor Corporation in medical device product liability lawsuit

After a six-week trial, an Alameda County (California) jury returned a verdict in favor of our client, Mentor Corporation, in a product liability lawsuit involving ObTape, a surgically-implanted mesh sling used for treatment of stress urinary incontinence (Seeno v. Mentor, No. RG06264787). The jury deliberated just over three hours before reaching its decision.

The plaintiff asserted negligence and failure to warn claims against Mentor, and presented testimony for over five weeks of the trial. The plaintiff's counsel requested compensatory damages in excess of $2 million during closing argument, and also sought punitive damages. This was the first ObTape-related case to go to trial, and several cases involving the product recently have been transferred to an MDL proceeding in the Middle District of Georgia, where Jones Day is lead counsel.

The Mentor trial team was led by Jones Day partners Ed Sebold (Houston) and John Lewis (Cleveland), with significant on-site contributions by associates Dustin Rawlin and Brad Harrison (both of Cleveland). Earlier this year, this same team won dismissal of a statewide medical monitoring putative class action involving ObTape (Ratliff v. Mentor Corp., No. 08-3198-CV-S-RED (W.D. Mo.), 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62623).