The Minnesota Court of Appeals today held that claims on behalf of a 17-year-old girl who died when her medical implant failed were not preempted by the federal 1976 Medical Device Amendments.

      In Jones v. Medtronic, Inc., the court ruled that the trial court had mistakenly dismissed claims for manufacturing defects, failure to warn, and breach of express and implied warranty as preempted. Instead, the court held that the liability action paralleled federal requirements and therefore could proceed.

     Kaitlyn Jones suffered from congenital severe cerebral palsy with spastic quadriplegia. She was implanted with a Medtronic SynchroMed(R) II device to deliver periodic, controlled doses of medication to control her muscle spasticity. Due to undisclosed cycles of overinfusion and underinfusion caused by malfunctions, the medication was not delivered, resulting in Kaitlyn's death. 

     Accepting Medtronic's argument that the complaint filed on her behalf lacked sufficient specificity to constitute a parallel claim, the trial court dismissed the case. CCL President Robert S. Peck represented the plaintiffs on appeal, arguing that violations of federal regulations identified by the Food & Drug Administration in warning letters, recalls of the device, and a lawsuit seeking to enjoin its further use replicated product liability actions under Minnesota law. Citation of these federal violations in the complaint with the parallel elements of Minnesota law provided fair notice of the basis of Medtronic's liability, he said in briefs and the February 1 oral argument before the court. The Court of Appeals unanimously agreed.