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# PA Court Allows Medical Device Strict Liability Claim
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/pa-court-allows-medical-device-strict-liability-claim/
- Published: 2017-03-02T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:09:32.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5138107

A Pennsylvania federal court last year allowed a strict-liability medical device manufacturing defect claim to proceed, based on a misconstruction of prior decisions and the state’s product liability law generally, according to a Washington Legal Foundation *Counsel’s Advisory* by attorney **Michelle Yeary** (Dechert). She [writes](http://www.wlf.org/upload/legalstudies/counselsadvisory/02-24-2017YearyCA.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) that the case involved a surgically installed feeding tube. Yeary says that in its decision to not dismiss the plaintiff’s strict liability manufacturing defect claim, the court ignored a 2014 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that held that a strict liability claim based on a defective prescription drug was barred.

Yeary says the court mistakenly relied on an earlier Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that no product is expressly exempt from strict liability. She says the court also ignored overwhelming precedent in Pennsylvania and nationally equating prescription drugs and prescription medical devices for purposes of applying strict liability.

The decision “relies on outdated cases and a non-prescription medical products case to arrive at the conclusion that Pennsylvania would recognize strict liability manufacturing defect claims for medical devices,” Yeary says.