High Court Rules Against GE Unit

General Electric Co.’s medical-device unit must pay a $75-million jury award for failing to get regulatory clearance for a fetal-monitoring device after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the company’s appeal.

Biomedical Systems Corp., which invented the monitor, won the award after accusing GE of bungling the Food and Drug Administration approval process. A 1997 agreement put GE in charge of securing FDA clearance, making and marketing the product.

GE argued unsuccessfully that it could have secured quicker approval only if it misled the FDA by saying that the monitor was intended for use at the end of a pregnancy.