Surgeon’s Nondisclosure of Device’s Risks Relieves Defendants of Liability, N.Y. Federal Judge Rules

NEW YORK — A surgeon’s decision to not inform a patient of a hip fracture repair device’s risks relieves the manufacturer of liability because it severed the required causal connection between the allegedly inadequate warnings and the patient’s injury, a New York federal judge has ruled in adopting a magistrate judge’s findings.

On March 15, Judge Ronnie Abrams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded Zimmer Inc. summary judgment, explaining that the duty to warn runs to the prescribing physician because he acts as an informed intermediary between the manufacturer and the patient. …