Discovery Sanction Imposed On A Taxotere Plaintiff

Discovery Sanction Imposed On A Taxotere Plaintiff

Introduction

In an order issued on August 22, 2018, Judge Jane T. Milazzo sanctioned a Taxotere plaintiff for withholding requested information about her medical history.

Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC and Sanofi US Services Inc. asserted that the plaintiff was required to reveal the name of the treating doctor and whether she used any over-the-counter medications. However, she never disclosed who treated her for hair loss and used misleading discovery tactics to conceal information about the medical treatment she had received. Sanofi discovered about her treatment when she produced thousands of pages of emails during the discovery process, which revealed she used to often email a doctor about her hair regrowth progress. Judge Milazzo stated, “the Court is troubled by such conduct. She is a sophisticated plaintiff, and she is a representative plaintiff in this litigation." In her deposition statement, the plaintiff admitted to asking the doctor to evade Sanofi's request for her medical records. She also instructed one of her employers to withhold her employment and medical records. The federal judge has asked the plaintiff to compensate the expenses and attorney’s fees incurred in obtaining her treatment records.

The chemotherapy drug Taxotere has been reported to cause permanent hair loss in several individuals. Cases filed in the federal and state courts accuse the drug maker of false marketing the medication. The multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2740; In Re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation) includes about 9,000 federal cases that have been centralized in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana for pretrial proceedings.