Anguiano
Anguiano v. E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Scannlain, J.
We must decide whether a manufacturer has a duty to warn of a danger posed by material which is later used in a medical implant device.
I
Between 1978 and 1986, Consuelo Angui-ano and twenty-one other appellants (collectively “Anguiano”) had temporomandibular (“TMJ”) implants placed in their jaws and subsequently suffered tissue reaction when the implants fragmented. The implants were constructed by Vitek, Inc., a company formed in 1969 by Charles Homsy, a former researcher at DuPont who left to develop medical implants made from a composition called Proplast. Vitek produced Proplast by mixing plytetrafluoroethylene (“PTFE”), a form of Teflon, with carbon fibers and other material; filtering, compressing, and rolling the mixture into a cake; then heating, drying, leaching, and redrying the cake. After this process, PTFE constituted about 90% of Proplast.
*809 Vitek purchased the PTFE from DuPont. Because Vitek planned to use PTFE for medical purposes, DuPont required Homsy to sign a letter stating that Vitek assumed full responsibility for any consequences resulting from its use of PTFE. In the letter, DuPont informed Vitek that DuPont had not conducted tests on PTFE’s…