Calif. man files short-form complaint in Tylenol products liability multidistrict litigation in Phila.; MDL now up to 100-plus individual suits

A new injury claim has been filed in the Tylenol Marketing, Sales Practices

and Products Liability Multidistrict Litigation playing out in federal court in Philadelphia.

Attorneys Christopher A. Seeger and Sindhu S. Daniel, of the Newark, N.J. law firm of Seeger Weiss LLP, filed a short-form complaint on Oct. 10 at the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of California resident Jacob Richardson.

The plaintiff claims he sustained acute liver failure as a result of ingesting Children’s Tylenol Oral Suspension for a three-day period back in early October 2011.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants, drug companies McNeill Consumer Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson, of strict liability, breach of implied and express warranties, negligence, negligent failure to warn, negligent design defect, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, fraudulent concealment and of violating consumer protection laws.

Richardson, whose age is not given, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the creation of the Tylenol MDL in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia back on April 1 of this year following a request by plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The multidistrict litigation, which is being overseen by U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, contains lawsuits against the pharmaceutical manufacturers alleging that users of Tylenol, whose active ingredient is acetaminophen, suffered liver damage or failure as a result of their use of the over-the-counter drug.

The overarching claim in the litigation is that the defendants marketed and sold their Tylenol products in a manner that concealed the margin of risk of liver toxicity and liver failure.

At the time of the MDL’s creation this spring, there were 27 such cases pending against the defendants in various jurisdictions across the country, court records show.

Twenty-one of those had been initiated in Philadelphia.

Many more suits have since been filed, some of them at the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and others outside of the jurisdiction but ultimately transferred into the MDL

Currently, there are a little more than 100 individual suits in the Tylenol MDL, according to Michael Weinkowitz, a plaintiffs’ attorney with the Philadelphia firm Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman.