Irvine Lawyer Questions Fairness of Shiley Settlement

A lawyer for more than 300 recipients of potentially defective heart valves is questioning the fairness of a confidential settlement that the manufacturer has apparently negotiated with another group of patients who have filed claims.

James Capretz of the Irvine law firm of Capretz & Kasdan said Friday that Shiley’s agreement with clients of a Minneapolis law firm “raises questions about the fairness, adequacy and reasonableness” of a separate class-action settlement that the company negotiated last summer with patients in Cincinnati.

Pfizer Inc. in New York and its subsidiary, Shiley Inc. in Irvine, have drawn up a $35-million agreement that would settle claims of 333 valve recipients represented by the Minneapolis firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, according to documents obtained by The Times.

The proposed agreement would give each client $40,000 to $300,000, depending on his or her circumstances. Most claims were filed by recipients whose valves have not fractured but who live in fear that the devices will malfunction.

The Shiley valves were sold between 1979 and 1986 and have been implanted in about 51,000 people worldwide. Of those, about 300 have died when struts in the valves came apart.

The Minneapolis firm’s clients, who have suits pending in Orange County Superior Court, opted not to take part in a $215-million class-action settlement approved in August by a federal court in Cincinnati. That settlement includes between $2,500 to $4,000 for each implant recipient for medical or psychological consultations. It also sets aside $75 million for research on procedures to detect flawed valves.

Capretz, whose clients also opted not to take part in the Cincinnati settlement, called on the law firm and Pfizer to disclose information about their agreement to the court.

“If Shiley and Pfizer have agreed to pay in the six-figure range to each U.S. recipient of the Minnesota settlement, and concurrently, pay approximately $4,000 to each of the implantees who were part of the Cincinnati class-action suit, it is reasonable to question the adequacy of the class-action settlement,” Capretz said in a statement.

Pfizer officials called Capretz’s comments “misguided” and denied that an agreement had been reached. However, the company acknowledged that it has been negotiating with the Minneapolis firm.