Vonnie Cornett v. Johnson & Johnson

In 2004, Billie Cornett received a drug-eluting stent to treat coronary artery disease. Five months later, a blood clot formed near the site of the stent and Cornett suffered a subacute stent thrombosis. Eleven days later, he died. In 2008, his widow, Vonnie Cornett, filed suit in New Jersey seeking damages for the injuries suffered by her husband and his estate. The issue presented to the Supreme Court centered on whether Vonnie Cornett filed her complaint within the statute of limitations, which required the New Jersey Court to determine whether the law of Kentucky or New Jersey applied to this case. The stent used in this case is a Class III medical device that was subject to the rigorous pre-market approval (PMA) process of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Therefore, another issue for the Court to decide was whether the various state statutory and common law claims are preempted by federal law governing approval of this medical device. Upon review, the Court concluded that the Kentucky statute of limitations governed this case and that Kentucky applies a discovery rule to product liability actions involving latent injuries and illnesses, but Cornett did not timely file her complaint. The Court also concluded that the great bulk of the state statutory and common law claims were preempted by federal law. View "Vonnie Cornett v. Johnson & Johnson" on Justia Law