Process To Choose AngioDynamics Port Lawsuits for Early Trials To Be Proposed by Sept. 24

Lawyers have been directed to propose how they will select a small group of representative claims from more than 200 lawsuits over fractured and infected port catheters being pursued in the federal court system.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over hundreds of Antiodynamics port lawsuits is calling for swift progress in selecting a small group of representative cases for the parties to prepare for early trial dates, which could set the tone for how juries respond to claims that the company’s implantable port catheters were defectively designed and caused serious injuries.

The litigation centers on a variety of AngioDynamics port catheter products, including the SmartPort, Vortex, Xcela and Vaxcel, which are implanted under the skin to deliver chemotherapy, fluids or medications directly into a patient’s bloodstream. 

However, a growing number of product liability lawsuits now allege the devices are prone to fracturing, migrating or causing life-threatening infections, often resulting in emergency removal or additional surgeries. The claims point to the use of barium sulfate in the catheter material, which is alleged to degrade over time and weaken the device, allowing these failures to occur.

Given the rising number of claims being filed across various U.S. District Courts, all federally filed AngioDynamics port catheter lawsuits were centralized before U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta in the Southern District of California late last year, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL). 

The consolidation of the claims is intended to streamline discovery and pretrial proceedings, with Judge Ohta now preparing to move the litigation into the next phase for early bellwether trials, which could facilitate settlement negotiations between the parties.

In a text-only minutes order published on the court docket last week, the parties were directed to submit a joint proposal for how bellwether trials should be selected by September 24, ahead of a video status conference scheduled for two days later.

The parties are expected to attempt to find a process to choose which cases are most representative of the broad body of the litigation. Those port catheter lawsuits will then go through additional discovery and preparations for early trial dates.

While the results of those bellwether trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs pursuing claims, they could help gauge how juries will respond to similar evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. In addition, the average Angiodynamics port lawsuit payouts awarded by juries may help lawyers negotiate settlements in other claims.

Following the MDL proceedings, if the parties do not reach a resolution for the litigation, Judge Ohta may then remand each case back to the U.S. District Court where it originated for a future trial date.

Port Catheter Lawsuit MDLs

AngioDynamics is not the only manufacturer defending port catheter lawsuits over fractured and potentially defective totally implantable vascular access devices. 

Similar allegations have been raised in nearly 2,000 Bard PowerPort lawsuits, which are currently centralized in a separate federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

As in the AngioDynamics litigation, plaintiffs pursuing claims against Bard allege that the company’s use of barium sulfate in the catheter material caused the devices to become brittle and prone to degradation. This defect is alleged to increase the risk of fracture, migration of catheter fragments and other mechanical failures that can have devastating consequences for patients.

Across both MDLs, plaintiffs have reported suffering serious and sometimes fatal injuries, including:

• Catheter Fracture
• Catheter Migration
• Cardiac Punctures
• Infection/Sepsis
• Blood Clots/Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
• Perforations and Vascular Damage
• Wrongful Death

While each litigation is proceeding independently, both raise nearly identical theories of liability involving the use of barium sulfate in port catheter design. The results of early bellwether trials in both MDLs are expected to heavily influence the course of the litigation, offering insight into how juries may view the evidence and potentially driving settlement negotiations with AngioDynamics and Bard.