Smith v. St. Jude Medical CA1/5

Plaintiffs are the five adult children and mother of the decedent, Patricia Amonoo, who died following cardiac pacemaker surgery in 2008. Plaintiffs sued St. Jude Medical, Inc. (St. Jude), Jeremy Kosel (collectively, defendants), and others involved in the surgery for, among other things, wrongful death as a result of defendants’ negligence. The trial court granted St. Jude’s motion for summary judgment, concluding defendants did not owe Amonoo a duty of care “with respect to the acts or omissions that allegedly caused her injury and death” and that plaintiffs “lack[ed] evidence that any acts or omissions by Kosel breached his duty of care under the circumstances or proximately caused the injury or death.”

Plaintiffs appeal. They contend the court erred by granting summary judgment because (1) they did not have a sufficient opportunity to conduct discovery to oppose the motion; (2) defendants did not satisfy their initial burden of production; (3) they raised a triable issue of material fact regarding whether defendants negligently undertook a duty to monitor Amonoo during or after the surgery; and (4) the court improperly relied on Kennedy v. Medtronic (2006) 366…