De La Paz v. Bayer Healthcare LLC

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

INTRODUCTION

In this personal-injury action involving a permanent female contraceptive device, *1088 defendants have moved to dismiss plaintiffs amended complaint. For the reasons stated below, defendants’ motion is GRANTED.

STATEMENT

Plaintiff Tanya De La Paz is an individual who resides in South Carolina who sought to have Essure, a permanent female contraceptive device, implanted in her fallopian tubes in July 2012. This action arises from several complications that De La Paz suffered as a result of alleged defects with the Essure device.

Defendants Bayer Healthcare LLC, Bayer Essure Inc., and Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (collectively “Bayer”), manufactured, sold, distributed, and marketed Essure. Essure was first designed and manufactured by Conceptus, Inc., which merged with Bayer in 2013 (for the purpose of this order, references to “Bayer” include Conceptus). Bayer also trained physicians how to use Essure and equipment related to implanting the device.

•1. The Essure Device.

Bayer designed the Essure device to insert a metal coil known as a “micro-insert” into each of a patient’s fallopian tubes. Once…