Panel Kills Bill to Curb Foreigners’ Product Liability Suits in California

Proposed legislation that would have made it difficult for foreign plaintiffs to try product liability cases in California courts was shot down late Tuesday in a state Senate committee.

Shiley Inc. had proposed the legislation in an effort to limit potential damages in wrongful death suits stemming from faulty heart valves made by the Irvine-based company.

But the measure “is dead in its current form,” said Paul Donahue, administrative aide to Senate Majority Leader Barry Keene (D-Benicia). Keene introduced the bill last week at Shiley’s request. The bill died in committee after failing to garner enough votes.

By changing the standards California judges use in determining whether to accept suits by foreign litigants, the bill would have reduced the opportunity for foreign plaintiffs to pursue cases against California manufacturers in California courts under the state’s product liability laws, which are among the toughest in the world.

Currently, California judges may decide to allow foreign litigants into state courts if the plaintiffs argue that California provides them greater access to witnesses and evidence, stronger consumer protection laws and more generous awards than the country where the injury occurred. The proposed legislation would have prohibited California judges from considering such benefits to plaintiffs.

Shiley has been hit with about 200 lawsuits alleging that relatives of the plaintiffs died because their Shiley heart valves malfunction. About 40 of those suits were filed in California by foreigners.

Reported deaths caused by breakages of the Bjork-Shiley Convexo Concave heart valves now number 134, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

After an hour of discussion Tuesday, the Keene bill failed to gain the six-vote majority necessary for passage through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was the first committee to consider it. Three senators voted in favor of the bill, two voted in opposition and five others abstained. At Keene’s request, the vote was then rescinded. The measure will be resurrected only if a new and modified bill is drafted.

Shiley officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

But supporters of the bill had argued Tuesday that California manufacturers are at a competitive disadvantage because they are subjected to stronger liability laws. California laws, they contended, were meant only to protect California citizens, not everyone in the world.

But the California Trial Lawyers Assn. and attorneys representing foreign plaintiffs suing Shiley complained that the new standards sought by Keene and Shiley were so onerous that they would make it virtually impossible for a foreign litigant to successfully sue a California manufacturer.