3M Bair Hugger Plaintiffs Say Suits Properly Reinstated

Joint-replacement patients who allege they developed infections from 3M Co.'s Bair Hugger warming system urged the full Eighth Circuit to stick with a panel decision that reinstated thousands of lawsuits.

In August, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said the plaintiffs’ general-causation experts, who linked the Bair Hugger system to the infections, were wrongly excluded.

3M asked for full review in September. It said the panel applied an Eighth Circuit evidence rule that expert opinions must be admitted unless they are “so fundamentally unsupported” that they “can offer no assistance to the ...