Judge Strikes Claims In RI NECC Case

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Citing her own prior rulings on the issue, a federal judge has dismissed warranty claims filed by a Rhode Island man, a victim of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
In a four-page ruling this week, U.S District Judge Rya Zobel dismissed product warranty claims against Ocean State Pain Management filed by Craig and Joan Simas.
Zobel has issued similar rulings on product liability claims by Tennessee victims of the meningitis outbreak caused by fungus tainted spinal steroids.
"As this court has repeatedly held, the provision of the methylprednisolone acetate was part and parcel with the service of its injection- the only purpose of the visit was the injection itself, something only a physician with special skill could provide," Zobel wrote..
Zobel, however, denied Ocean State's motion to dismiss claims under Massachusetts' and Rhode Island's consumer protection statutes.
Craig Simas was a patient at Ocean State and he and his wife sued the clinic and physician Abdul Barakat.
The suit is one of more than 100 filed following the 2012 outbreak caused by fungus laden steroids from the now defunct New England Compounding Center.