Last year, Medtronic won a huge decision from Minneapolis federal district court Judge Richard Kyle, who dismissed scores of product liability cases questioning the safety of Medtronic Sprint Fidelis defibrillation leads following the 2007 recall of the devices. As we reported at the time, Kyle’s ruling was believed to be the first major decision to rely on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 opinion in Riegel v. Medtronic, which barred certain suits involving medical devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration on pre-emption grounds.
Plaintiffs lawyers promptly appealed Kyle’s ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But Medtronic didn’t wait to see if the appellate court would affirm the decision. On Thursday the company announced that it would pay $268 million to resolve Sprint Fidelis-related suits pending in the Minneapolis federal multidistrict litigation, in Minnesota state court and elsewhere throughout the country. The amount includes attorney fees, according to Medtronic.
