JAMES GANNON, ET AL. V. AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS, INC.
ET ALS.
A-3936-07T2 07-29-10
Defendants were granted summary judgment in this products
liability vaccine case involving Orimune, an oral polio vaccine
administered to plaintiff in the 1970's. See Rivard v. Am. Home
Prods., Inc., 391 N.J. Super. 129 (App. Div. 2007) (in which we
detailed the history of the development of Orimune and affirmed
the denial of summary judgment on the causation issue).
Plaintiff had also filed suit against the United States in
federal district court, alleging negligence by the government in
the screening of Orimune and in insuring regulatory compliance.
That suit resulted in judgment in favor of the United States,
the judge determining that plaintiff had failed to prove Orimune
caused cancer in humans.
Defendants sought summary judgment on two fronts: they
alleged plaintiff had failed to adequately identify their
particular vaccine as the one he received; and, they
supplemented their initial motion with a copy of the district
court's opinion and argued that plaintiff was precluded from
proving causation in this case. The judge granted summary
judgment for both reasons.
We reversed. On the product identification issue, we
concluded the judge had misapplied the Brill standard, and that
plaintiff had raised a genuine factual dispute that precluded
summary judgment. On the collateral estoppel issue, we
discussed several exceptions to the rigid application of the
doctrine, and, under the circumstances of this case and given
the lack of any motion record on the issue, we concluded that it
was inappropriate to grant summary judgment on this ground.
