On January 26, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Tucker Ellis client Mentor Worldwide LLC. The two plaintiffs claimed that they had received Mentor’s silicone gel breast implants and that the implants leaked due to a manufacturing defect, resulting in multiple health complications. The plaintiffs also claimed that Mentor had failed to warn doctors, patients, and the Food & Drug Administration of the alleged risks associated with the implants.

“Although the complaint spins a wide-reaching story of noncompliance . . . it does little to support this highly conclusory story with specific facts,” the panel said. “[T]hese factual allegations do not touch on any specific flaw in the manufacturing process relevant to Plaintiffs’ own implants.”

The court affirmed the September 2019 decision by the Kansas federal district court that plaintiffs’ claims were preempted by the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and insufficiently pled.

Dustin Rawlin and Jeffrey Sindelar represented Mentor (Brooks et al. v. Mentor Worldwide LLC, — F.3d —- (10th Cir. 2021) with assistance from Monee Hanna and Rachel Byrnes.

Read more in the Law360 article here.