Damages Estimate Raised to over $900 Million in Kimberly-Clark/Halyard Health Lawsuit Following 60 Minutes Story on Company F...
May 02 2016 - 12:25PM
Business Wire
Based on information and documents uncovered within the last
week, Eagan Avenatti, LLP, a Southern California-based law firm,
revised their damages estimate this morning to $900 million in a
class action lawsuit pending in the United States District Court
for the Central District of California in Los Angeles against
Halyard Health (NYSE: HYH) and Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE:
KMB). In the lawsuit, the firm alleges that the companies committed
fraud in the marketing and selling of certain of their protective
medical gowns. In addition, the firm announced that they have been
actively investigating countless product failures occurring within
the companies’ surgical and infection prevention division and
expect to be filing additional cases shortly.
“Unfortunately, with each passing week, we are discovering that
the problems at Halyard are systemic. They reflect a decade of
non-compliance throughout Halyard’s surgical and infection
prevention division, which accounts for over $1 billion of revenue
per year to the company,” said lead attorney Michael Avenatti of
Eagan Avenatti, LLP, the law firm representing the Plaintiffs.
“Documents recently uncovered show that the product failures have
plagued the company for years and they have knowingly continued to
place healthcare professionals at risk. These failures are
unfortunately not confined to surgical gowns and healthcare
professionals need to be very wary of Halyard products,” added
Avenatti.
“As the company’s abysmal defense of their conduct last night on
60 Minutes shows, they have a lot to hide. Why not simply sit and
answer all of Anderson Cooper’s questions truthfully? Why did the
“team” have to call “time” when faced with evidence they were
trying to deceive the American public,” questioned Avenatti. “The
COO looked like a deer in the headlights and could not get out of
the chair fast enough. That tells you all you need to know.”
In other developments following the 60 Minutes story:
1. The firm is demanding that Kimberly-Clark
and Halyard agree to publically release all documents they have
produced in the lawsuit so the American public and healthcare
professionals can know the truth about the companies’ testing and
product failures. “They refuse to lift the gag order on these
documents for one simple reason – they are devastating to the
company,” stated Avenatti. “They know that if the documents see the
light of day, the company will go into a free fall. We are
demanding that the company agree to allow us to share the documents
with the public.”
2. The firm disclosed that as early as 2012,
Kimberly-Clark knew the gowns were failing testing on a monthly
basis and yet did nothing. The company also had its own tests
commissioned in 2013 that confirmed the gowns were failing at an
alarming rate. Despite failing test after test, neither
Kimberly-Clark nor Halyard ever informed the FDA or healthcare
professionals. Instead, they continued to place healthcare workers
at risk.
3. The firm disclosed they have been in
contact with congressional investigators seeking information
regarding Kimberly-Clark and Halyard’s business practices. Hearings
and governmental inquiries are expected in the coming weeks.
4. The firm estimates that the financial
fallout from the current case together with upcoming litigation
from other product failures could approach $2 billion, an amount
far in excess of Halyard’s ability to pay.
About Eagan Avenatti, LLP
Michael J. Avenatti, Esq. is a founding partner of Eagan
Avenatti, LLP, a firm of trial attorneys that specialize in
litigating a variety of complex civil litigation in courts
throughout the United States. With offices in Los Angeles, Orange
County and San Francisco, Eagan Avenatti, LLP and its attorneys
have obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and
verdicts for plaintiffs nationwide.
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