{"id":1175,"date":"2015-07-31T18:41:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T18:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2015-07-31T18:41:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T18:41:46","slug":"7-year-old-girl-awarded-50-million-in-ibuprofen-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/7-year-old-girl-awarded-50-million-in-ibuprofen-case\/","title":{"rendered":"7-Year-Old Girl Awarded $50 Million In Ibuprofen Case."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Massachusetts, sellers of products are subject to and required to uphold what is called the implied warranty of merchantability. <strong>This near-equivalent of strict liability helps ensure that buyers are protected against <em><a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-defective-product-injury-lawyers-attorneys.php\">faulty and defective products<\/a><\/em>.<\/strong> However, product liability concerns sometimes stem from less expected sources\u2014sometimes the lack of a proper warning can be enough to constitute a violation of Massachusetts product liability law.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mgyIoDq0TDc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In Reckis v. Johnson &amp; Johnson, a 7-year-old Massachusetts girl was given several doses of an over-the-counter ibuprofen. <strong>She developed a rash, which triggered severe dermatologic disease toxic epidermal necrolysis (\u201cTEN\u201d)<\/strong>. TEN, also known as Lyell\u2019s syndrome, is a rare, life-threatening skin condition that causes the top layer of skin to detach from the lower layers of the skin all over the body. Death usually occurs because of sepsis and subsequent organ failure.<\/p>\n<p>The child\u2019s parents sued the drug manufacturers in Massachusetts Superior Court for <strong>negligence, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability and violation of the Massachusetts unfair and deceptive practices statute<\/strong> (Mass. Gen. L. ch. 93A).<\/p>\n<p>According to a Foley Hoag article, the parents alleged that the drug caused the TEN, and that the manufacturer failed to adequately warn consumers that rash symptoms could be signs of a \u201clife-threatening\u201d disease. <strong>A jury awarded the 7-year-old girl $50 million and the parents $13 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Commonwealth\u2019s highest court, granted the defendant-manufacturer direct appellate review but then affirmed the lower court decision. <strong>The defendants contended that the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act preempted the parents\u2019 failure-to-warn claim.<\/strong> However, the Supreme Judicial Court found that a claim would only be preempted if there was \u201cclear evidence\u201d that the United States Food and Drug Administration (\u201cFDA\u201d) would not have approved the warnings for which the parents advocated. Based on previous FDA rejections of citizen-group petitions, the SJC held that there was clear evidence that the FDA would have rejected the plaintiffs\u2019 TEN-specific warning but not a more general \u201clife-threatening\u201d illness warning. <strong>The SJC, therefore, affirmed the compensatory damages awards.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you or a loved one has suffered from the negligent actions of a manufacturing company, please email us at <a href=\"https:\/\/gilhoylaw.com\/boston-massachusetts-contact-gilbert-hoy-lawyers-attorneys.php\"><strong><em>info@gilhoylaw.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a> or call 617-787-3700 now to speak with one of our <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vzResghV3g0\">Massachusetts product liability specialists<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Massachusetts, sellers of products are subject to and required to uphold what is called the implied warranty of merchantability. This near-equivalent of strict liability helps ensure that buyers are protected against faulty and defective products. However, product liability concerns &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/7-year-old-girl-awarded-50-million-in-ibuprofen-case\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,4,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boston-personalinjury-lawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}