On June 17, Mentor Worldwide LLC obtained a complete defense verdict in an MDL bellwether trial in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia (Morey v. Mentor Worldwide LLC). The plaintiff asserted negligent design and failure to warn claims with respect to ObTape, a polypropylene mesh used to treat women for incontinence. The unanimous federal jury deliberated for less than two days before rejecting Morey’s multimillion-dollar request for compensatory and punitive damages, answering the first question on the verdict form that Mentor was not negligent in the design or warnings associated with ObTape. The case was the second ObTape case to go to verdict, both of which resulted in defense wins.

Mentor was represented at trial by John Q. Lewis, Dustin Rawlin, and Sarah Bunce of the Cleveland office and Mollie Benedict of the Los Angeles office, with trial support from Justin Rice, Jon Feczko, Seth Linnick, and Erica James.