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Martin v. Medtronic, Inc.

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Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

In this consolidated appeal,*fn1 we address a question of federal preemption: whether, based on Medtronic’s compliance with the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) rigorous premarket approval procedure (“PMA”), the plaintiffs’ Texas common law products liability tort claims are preempted by 21 U.S.C. � 360k, the Medical Devices Amendments (“MDA”) to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”). We have addressed this issue before. In Stamps v. Collagen Corp., 984 F.2d 1416, 1422 (5th Cir. 1993), we held that similar state product liability claims were preempted. Since we decided Stamps, however, the Supreme Court has spoken on the issue. See Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U.S. 470, 477, 116 S.Ct. 2240, 135 L.Ed.2d 700 (1996). The Supreme Court did not specifically decide the case before us, yet spoke in a way that overruled Stamps in part. Lohr is a difficult opinion to apply in this case; first, because it involves a process far less specific in its requirements than the PMA process involved in both this case and Stamps, and second, because on points important to this appeal, the Lohr court was fractured. In any event, we ultimately determine that for purposes of deciding this appeal, Stamps is binding precedent that controls the outcome of the case. Accordingly, we hold that the Texas state product liability claims in this case are preempted by the MDA, and we affirm the judgment of the district court dismissing the complaint.

I.

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