Products Liability Law Reporter

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a consumer’s products liability suit was untimely where she was aware she had suffered a medication-related injury as early as six years before she filed her claim.

In February and March 2004, Terry Paulsen received two injections of Lupron Depot to treat her endometriosis. She began experiencing health problems shortly after the injections, including severe bone and joint pain, for which she sought medical care. In 2010, she sued Abbott Laboratories and others; however, she voluntarily dismissed her claims in 2014. The following year, she filed a second lawsuit against Abbott and others, asserting claims for products liability and negligent misrepresentation. The defense moved for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion, finding, in part, that the plaintiff’s strict liability claim was time-barred.

Affirming, the Seventh Circuit found that under the common law discovery rule, a limitations period begins to run when a party knows or should have known of an injury and that it was wrongfully caused. Documentation in the case shows that Paulsen knew or should have known of her alleged injury years before 2008, the court said, noting that her 2004 medical records reveal complaints of pain following the injections and a 2005 doctor’s note stating Paulsen’s concerns related to the Lupron. Thus, the court found, evidence demonstrated that the plaintiff’s claims accrued long before she filed her first lawsuit in 2010. Therefore, the court held that Illinois’s two-year limitations period had elapsed before this time, notwithstanding any lenient application of the discovery rule.

Consequently, the district court’s decision was proper.

Citation: Paulsen v. Abbott Labs., 2022 WL 2582367 (7th Cir. July 8, 2022).