Opinion ID: 1189000
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: evidence supporting summary judgment

Text: As to the district court's initial order granting summary judgment, I note that the court found that there was no allegation that the MMR II vaccine was defectively manufactured. In addition, the court found that the Allisons' expert, Dr. Geraghty, based his conclusions as to the incidence of encephalitis following receipt of the MMR II vaccine on discussions with unidentified persons who had done informal calculations. Specifically, the court found that the only competent statistical evidence provided to the court revealed that the incidence of serious reactions to MMR II was one in one million. In addition, plaintiff's co-counsel, David Greenhaw, claimed that he had reviewed thousands of CDC adverse reaction reports and had discovered that the MMR II vaccine had been associated with 125 serious reactions over a three and one-half year period. However, the court found that Greenhaw's affidavit did not state how many such vaccinations had been administered during that time and thus presented no basis for contesting the accuracy of Merck's warnings. I can find nothing in the record to refute the district court's findings on this issue. I also note that upon reconsideration of the initial order granting summary judgment, the Allisons presented a new affidavit from Dr. Geraghty as well as a letter from another expert, Dr. David Benjamin. However, the court found that this additional information, which was presented to bolster the Allisons' claim that Merck had understated the risk, involved foreign studies of various vaccines utilizing differing viral strains in the manufacturing process. Specifically, the court found that the Allisons had offered nothing which indicated that the figures in the important information sheet were inaccurate. In granting summary judgment for Merck, the district court held that there were no material issues of disputed fact. In doing so, the court found that the Allisons had failed to present sufficient evidence to overcome a summary judgment challenge from Merck. I find nothing in the record to refute such a finding and accordingly would affirm the court's order of summary judgment.