California Top Court Asked to Weigh Medical Device Warning Issue

The Ninth Circuit asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to answer a state-law warning liability question that will determine whether a woman’s claim against a maker of a shock-therapy device can proceed.

Under learned intermediary principles in prescription medical device cases, a plaintiff must show that a stronger warning about a product would have changed the prescribing physician’s conduct.

But California law hasn’t addressed how the doctor’s conduct would have changed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished decision.

It asked the California justices to determine whether a plaintiff must show that a ...