Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court

We here review the denial of summary judgment in one of the breast implant cases currently under administration by the San Diego County Superior Court (see McGhan Medical Corp. v. Superior Court (1992) 11 Cal.App.4th 804 [ 14 Cal.Rptr.2d 264 ]). We find the case appropriate for writ relief because our intervention will terminate an action which otherwise would unnecessarily burden the superior court (see Whitney’s at the Beach v. Superior Court (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 258 , 266 [ 83 Cal.Rptr. 237 ]), and we publish the decision because it deals with an application of the one-year statute of limitations provision (Code Civ. Proc., § 340, subd. (3)) to medical products liability which appears not previously to have received precise attention and which will likely have application to other cases presently pending (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 976(b)).

Defendants’ motion for summary judgment was based on the contentions (1) that there was no factual dispute as to plaintiff’s knowledge of her injury and (2) that she was on notice of the likely negligent cause of the injury, many years before the date of her lawsuit. The court denied the motion upon its conclusion that “even if all…