Mary-Jo Pullen

Dinsmore's Product Liability Team recently received a ruling in favor of The Procter & Gamble Defendants ("P&G") which is the first in the country to assess and reject the scientific basis for lawsuits filed by a number of Fixodent® users.

Frank C. Woodside, III, and his team serve as counsel for P&G defendants concerning Denture Adhesive Litigation. In that litigation, Judge Cecilia Altonaga oversees discovery in the Multi-District Litigation involving more than 150 plaintiffs who seek damages for personal injuries that allegedly resulted from their use of excessive amounts of Fixodent, manufactured by P&G, and/or Poligrip, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The current litigation was initiated in 2009 against P&G. The Federal cases were eventually consolidated in Miami with a number of other cases pending in state courts throughout the country. P&G has steadfastly defended the safety of Fixodent.

On June 13, 2011 Judge Altonaga issued a Daubert opinion granting P&G's motion to exclude virtually all of the Plaintiffs’ proposed expert opinion testimony that purportedly supported the link between extremely excessive use of Fixodent denture adhesive and neurological disease.

A medical monitoring action tried to a defense verdict in state court in Wheeling, West Virginia in 2001 that was instituted against multiple tobacco companies by a class of West Virginia smokers who sought medical monitoring in the form of CT scanning and spirometry to screen for smoking related disease.  In this action (which was affirmed on appeal) Dinsmore & Shohl represented The American Tobacco Company and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation.  In addition to acting as trial counsel, Dinsmore & Shohl consulted with and retained pre-eminent experts in the fields of public health, preventive medicine and pulmonology to develop and present a scientifically sound defense in emerging areas of law and medicine.

Counsel for Hubble in several personal injury cases alleging injuries from electrical products. All cases resolved favorably for Hubble.

Dinsmore & Shohl represents International Flavors & Fragrances in the butter flavoring litigation that arose after a NIOSH investigation found a significant lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in a Missouri popcorn plant. The firm's trial team, consisting of Frank C. Woodside, III, Mary-Jo Middelhoff and J. David Brittingham, has taken 8 cases to trial since 2003 and continues to litigate numerous cases in a variety of jurisdictions.

Dinsmore & Shohl represented its tobacco clients in cases in a variety of state and federal courts participating in out of town trials in six cases.  The cases ranged from medical monitoring class action to a major consolidated personal injury matter to individual lawsuits involving claims of lung cancer, peripheral vascular disease, laryngeal cancer, etc.  The cases involved significant document management, as well as complex legal, factual and medical issues.  All cases were fully litigated and either dismissed, disposed of on motion or tried to a verdict.  In no case handled by Dinsmore & Shohl were the clients subject to punitive damages.