The federal court overseeing the MDL concerning an allegedly defective stress urinary incontinence device has issued a number of rulings on defendant Mentor Corp.’s motions to exclude various plaintiff experts. The one we want to focus our readers on is the order granting the company’s motion to exclude the testimony of a so-called “business ethicist,” who was proffered to testify about the supposed inappropriateness of Mentor’s conduct relating to the warnings about the ObTape device.  In re Mentor Corp. ObTape TransObdurator Sling Prods. Liab. Litig., 2010 WL 1727828 (M.D. Ga. Apr. 27, 2010).

Mentor developed a device called ObTape Transobturator Tape (“ObTape”), which was used to treat women with stress urinary incontinence. Plaintiffs contended that the allegedly defective design of ObTape caused complications that resulted in significant injuries, including serious infections and erosion of the tape. Of course, every ObTape package included an FDA-approved Product Insert Data Sheet which listed vaginal erosion, urethral erosion, and infection as possible complications associated with ObTape. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the several federal products liability cases to the Middle District of Georgia in 2008. Ahead of the upcoming trials in the bellwether cases, both parties filed various motions in limine to exclude the other’s expert  witnesses.

Plaintiffs intended to offer Professor Ann Buchholtz, Ph.D., as an “ethics” expert. Prof. Buchholtz proposed to opine about defendant’s alleged ethical duty to protect the safety of patients and its ethical duty to provide information to physicians and patients. Specifically, she asserted, based on a review of selected internal Mentor documents, that certain information about ObTape should have been reported to the FDA and to physicians and patients. Mentor contended that Prof. Buchholtz’s ethics opinions should not be permitted because (1) the opinions would not assist the jury, (2) the opinions are unreliable, and (3) Prof. Buchholtz is not qualified to render the opinions.

For an expert’s testimony to “assist” the trier of fact, the evidence must have a valid scientific connection to the disputed facts in the case. A court may exclude expert testimony that is imprecise and unspecific, or whose factual basis is not adequately explained. Cook ex rel. Tessier v. Sheriff of Monroe County, Fla., 402 F.3d 1092, 1111 (11th Cir. 2005).  Expert testimony is generally only admissible if it concerns matters that are beyond the understanding of the average lay person. Proffered expert testimony generally will not help the trier of fact when it offers nothing more than what lawyers for the parties can argue in closing arguments.

And that is the precise problem with so-called business ethics experts who testify merely to highlight plaintiff counsel’s interpretation of cherry-picked internal documents; to testify as to ethical standards that are not legal standards at issue in the case; to invade the province of the jury by substituting the witness’ conclusions about the appropriateness of the defendant’s conduct; and to work the jury into a lather with a subjective, supposedly expert view of that conduct. See generally In re Rezulin Products Liability Litigation, 309 F. Supp. 2d 531 (S.D.N.Y. 2004). Personal views on corporate ethics and morality are not expert opinions. See In re: Diet Drugs Prod. Liab. Litig., 2001 WL 454586 at *9 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 1, 2001); see also In re Trasylol Products Liab. Litig., MDL-1928, 2010 WL 1489793 (S.D.Fla.Feb. 24, 2010).  Expert testimony about a company’s “intent” is merely conjecture based on the expert’s impressions of the physical evidence, and must be excluded as not based on any reliable methodology or scientific principle. J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. v. Gen. Motors Corp., 243 F.3d 441, 444-45 (8th Cir.2001); In re Baycol Products Litigation, 532 F.Supp.2d 1029.  Similarly, an expert cannot be presented to the jury solely for the purpose of constructing a factual narrative based upon record evidence.  In re Diet Drugs Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 1203, 2000 WL 876900, at *9 (E.D.Pa. June 20, 2000); see also In re Fosamax Products Liab. Litig., MDL 1789, 645 F.Supp.2d 164 (S.D.N.Y.July 27, 2009).

Here, the court found the expert was not qualified to render an opinion regarding what information Mentor should have disclosed to the FDA or to physicians and patients. Prof. Buchholtz is not a physician, a medical researcher, or a medical ethicist. She had no expertise in the fields that would
qualify a witness to testify about what scientific information should be reported to the FDA or to testify about medical device industry standards for warning physicians and patients about potential adverse effects of a medical device.  Therefore, she was not qualified to offer an opinion about the appropriateness of Mentor’s conduct regarding its alleged failure to warn the FDA, physicians, and
patients about certain risks associated with ObTape.

Beyond the qualification issue, the court went on to note that even if the “Code of Ethics” that Prof. Buchholtz relied on was somehow relevant to a medical device company’s standard of care in the context of product development and marketing, anyone who reads and understands the English language can interpret and apply the principles underlying that “Code of Ethics.” So Prof. Buchholtz’s testimony on the subject was unnecessary, and not beyond the understanding of a lay jury.