Thalidomide Birth Defect Lawsuit Time-Barred Under La. Law, Pa. Federal Judge Rules

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge has dismissed a thalidomide birth defect case, ruling that the plaintiff’s claims are time-barred by Louisiana’s one-year statute of limitations because the plaintiff suspected that the drug caused her injuries as early as the late 1970s.

On April 1, Judge Paul S. Diamond of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that the limitations period was not tolled by the discovery rule because both the plaintiff and her mother failed to investigate their long-held suspicion that “pills from Germany” caused the plaintiff’s birth defects.

Louisiana resident Debra Johnson sued GSK, …