> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fdaweb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# California Court Upholds Preemption for Medtronic
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/california-court-upholds-preemption-for-medtronic/
- Published: 2022-10-27T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T18:04:32.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5153071

A California state court has upheld PMA preemption in a case involving a Medtronic spinal cord stimulator. Attorney **Michelle Yeary** (Dechert) [writes](https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c746f677-a9b0-4476-bd45-1e9f000cb3a3&ref=fdaweb.com) in the *Drug and Device Law* blog that the plaintiff in the case brought claims for strict liability, failure to warn, negligence, and negligent misrepresentation.

Yeary says Medtronic demonstrated that the warning it provided with the device was the one approved by FDA and any different warning would impose additional requirements and thus was preempted.

Medtronic countered the failure to report claim by describing the firm’s compliance with its reporting obligations. The negligent misrepresentation claims also were dismissed.

Yeary writes that the company moved to dismiss the negligence claim on causation grounds, but the court decided the experts could debate it at trial. She points out that the negligence claim is based on the conduct of a company representative, demonstrating the perils, she says, of letting sales representatives have direct contact with patients.

While the negligence claim survived summary judgment, the court held that the company representative’s conduct failed to support damages as a matter of law. “Overall,” Yeary concludes, “the meat of plaintiff’s claims has been stripped away.”