2nd Suit Against Shiley Seeks Class-Action Status : Courts: Filing is on behalf of 1,000 Florida residents who were implanted with the Irvine firm’s potentially flawed heart valves.

Heart valve manufacturer Shiley Inc. faces another large, class-action suit on behalf of people who were implanted with the company’s potentially flawed devices.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, seeks class-action status on behalf of 1,000 Florida residents who received Bjork-Shiley Convexo-Concave heart valves manufactured by Irvine-based Shiley between 1979 and 1986. Also named in the suit are Pfizer Inc., the New York-based parent of Shiley, Pfizer Hospital Products Group Inc. and Howmedica Inc.

Pfizer said last week that it has put most of the Shiley unit’s assets up for sale, although it will retain the Shiley name and continue to be legally liable for claims arising from the Bjork-Shiley valve controversy.

The suit was filed by the same Miami law firm, Robles & Gonzalez, that earlier this year filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles seeking class-action status for 55,000 valve recipients nationwide.

On June 3, U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp denied the request, saying the cases varied too much to qualify as a class action.

The Florida suit accuses Shiley, Pfizer and two affiliated companies of marketing the heart valves even though they had reason to believe that they could fail.

Robert Fauteux, a Shiley spokesman, said he had not seen the latest complaint. But he said the allegations appear similar to those filed in Los Angeles in January.

“It seems they are shopping for a forum because they couldn’t get it in one court,” Fauteux said.

“We believe we can prevail in the courts, presuming what they claim is similar to the earlier case.”

Shiley distributed about 86,000 of the valves between 1979 and 1986. As of May 31, the company had confirmed reports of 442 cases in which a valve strut fractured after implantation.

More than two-thirds of those 442 valve recipients have died, and an estimated 53,000 to 55,000 people are living with valves that have not failed.

Shiley took the valves off the market in 1986 without conceding that they were flawed.

Ervin Gonzalez, a partner at Robles & Gonzalez, said that by filing claims on a state-by-state basis, the case could come to trial and victims would be compensated earlier.

Gonzalez said he represents 15 clients in Florida who are victims of Shiley’s alleged faulty heart valves. He said a similar suit would be filed this week in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana on behalf of California heart valve recipients.

Fauteux said the proposed sale of Shiley assets is unrelated to the lawsuits. But Gonzalez said he was concerned about the sale as an attempt to separate Shiley’s assets from its liabilities.