McGuire v. Abbott Labs.

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JIMMY WAYNE MCGUIRE, Plaintiff, v. ABBOTT LABORATORIES, INC., Defendant.

Civil Action No. 1:22-CV-197

United States District Court, E.D. Texas

May 3, 2023

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MARCIA A. CRONE, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Pending before the court is Defendant Abbott Laboratories, Inc.'s (“Abbott”) Second Motion to Dismiss (#27) wherein it seeks dismissal of all of Plaintiff Jimmy Wayne McGuire's (“McGuire”) claims. Having considered the motion, the record, and the applicable law the court is of the opinion that Abbott's motion should be granted.

I. Background

McGuire alleges that an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (“ICD”) was placed in his chest on October 13, 2017, in order to treat certain cardiac health issues he was experiencing. The ICD was a Fortify Assura DR (“Fortify Assura”), Model No. CD2357-40Q, which was manufactured, marketed, and sold by Abbott. McGuire claims that he suffered shocks from the Fortify Assura when it malfunctioned on April 14, 2020. McGuire contends that he was taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, Texas, for treatment the same day, and that he was subsequently transported to Houston Methodist Hospital where the Fortify Assura was replaced with a different ICD manufactured by Abbott. McGuire asserts that he sustained mental and physical injuries as a result of the malfunction.

McGuire filed a lawsuit against Abbott in the 88th Judicial District Court of Hardin County, Texas, asserting product liability claims due to alleged manufacturing, design, and marketing defects of the device, as well as negligence claims, related to the Fortify Assura. Abbott removed the case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division. On September 15, 2022, the court conditionally granted Abbott's First Motion to Dismiss (#10), but allowed McGuire an opportunity to amend his pleadings (#23). On October 17, 2022, McGuire filed an Amended Complaint (#24), which alleges the following “five theories of recovery”: (1) failure to warn; (2) manufacturing defect; (3) negligence in the marketing and manufacturing of the device; (4) negligent misrepresentation; and (5) breach of express warranty. On November 11, 2022, Abbott filed the pending motion to dismiss on the basis that McGuire failed to plead any legally sufficient claims and that all of his claims are preempted by federal law. McGuire did not file a response.

II. Analysis

A. Rule 12(b)(6) Standard

A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure tests only the formal sufficiency of the statement of a claim for relief and is “appropriate when a defendant attacks the complaint because it fails to state a legally cognizable claim.” Ramming v. United States, 281 F.3d 158, 161 (5th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 536 U.S. 960 (2002); accord Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (holding that in order “[t]o survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face”); Spano ex rel. C.S. v. Whole Foods, Inc., 65 F.4th 260, 2023 WL 2943005, at *2 (5th Cir. Apr. 14, 2023) (quoting Innova Hosp. San Antonio, Ltd. P'ship v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Ga., Inc., 892 F.3d 719, 726 (5th Cir. 2018)); IberiaBank Corp. v. Ill. Union Ins. Co., 953 F.3d 339, 345 (5th Cir. 2020); Walker v. Beaumont Indep. Sch. Dist., 938 F.3d 724, 734 (5th Cir. 2019). Such a motion is “not meant to resolve disputed facts or test the merits of a lawsuit” and “instead must show that, even in the plaintiff's best-case scenario, the complaint does not state a plausible case for relief.” Sewell v. Monroe City Sch. Bd., 974 F.3d 577, 581 (5th Cir. 2020); Oyekwe v. Rsch. Now Grp., Inc., 542 F.Supp.3d 496, 502 (N.D. Tex. 2021); 5B CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT & ARTHUR R. MILLER, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1356 (3d ed. 2019). In ruling on such a motion, the court must accept the factual allegations of the complaint as true, view them in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Hernandez v. Mesa, 582 U.S. 548, 550 (2017); Ramirez v. Guadarrama, 3 F.4th 129, 133 (5th Cir. 2021), cert. denied, 142 S.Ct. 2571 (2022); IberiaBank Corp., 953 F.3d at 345 (citing Leal v. McHugh, 731 F.3d 405, 410 (5th Cir. 2013)); Walker, 938 F.3d at 735. The court, however, does not “strain to find inferences favorable to the plaintiff[]” or “accept conclusory allegations, unwarranted deductions, or legal conclusions.” Southland Sec. Corp. INSpire Ins. Sols., Inc., 365 F.3d 353, 361 (5th Cir. 2004); accord Ruvalcaba v. Angleton Indep. Sch. Dist., No. 20-40491, 2022 WL 340592, at *3 (5th Cir. Feb. 4, 2022); Modelist v. Miller, 445 Fed.Appx. 737, 739 (5th Cir. 2011); Jones v. Dickerson, No. CV H-19-3876, 2020 WL 6504456, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 5, 2020).

“[T]he plaintiff's complaint [must] be stated with enough clarity to enable a court or an opposing party to determine whether a claim is sufficiently alleged.” Oscar Renda Contracting, Inc. v. Lubbock, 463 F.3d 378, 381 (5th Cir. 2006) (citing Elliott v. Foufas, 867 F.2d 877, 880 (5th Cir. 1989)), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 1339 (2007); Ramming, 281 F.3d at 161. The “[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007); accord Spano ex rel. C.S., 2023 WL 2943005, at *2; King v. Baylor Univ., 46 F.4th 344, 355 (5th Cir. 2022); Davis v. Tex. Health & Hum. Servs. Comm'n, 761 Fed.Appx. 451, 454 (5th Cir. 2019); Lee v. Verizon Commc'ns, Inc., 837 F.3d 523, 533 (5th Cir. 2016), cert. denied, 137 S.Ct. 1374 (2017). “Where the well-pleaded facts of a complaint do not permit a court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged-but it has not ‘show[n]'-‘that the pleader is entitled to relief.'” Walker, 938 F.3d at 734 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678); accord King, 46 F.4th at 355. Hence, “a complaint's allegations ‘must make relief plausible, not merely conceivable, when taken as true.'” Walker, 938 F.3d at 734 (quoting United States ex rel. Grubbs v. Kanneganti, 565 F.3d 180, 186 (5th Cir. 2009)); see King, 46 F.4th at 355; Longoria ex rel. M.L. v. San Benito Indep. Consol. Sch. Dist., 942 F.3d 258, 263 (5th Cir. 2019) (“Though the complaint need not contain ‘detailed factual allegations,' it must contain sufficient factual material to ‘allow[] the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.'” (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678)).

Generally, the court may not look beyond the four corners of the plaintiff's pleadings. Indest v. Freeman Decorating, Inc., 164 F.3d 258, 261 (5th Cir. 1999); see King, 46 F.4th at 356; Wilson v. Birnberg, 667 F.3d 591, 595 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 567 U.S. 936 (2012); Hicks v. Lingle, 370 Fed.Appx. 497, 497 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 562 U.S. 1111 (2010). The court may, however, consider “documents attached to the complaint, and any documents attached to the motion to dismiss that are central to the claim and referenced by the complaint.” Lone Star Fund V (U.S.), L.P. v. Barclays Bank PLC, 594 F.3d 383, 387 (5th Cir. 2010); see Innova Hosp. San Antonio, L.P., 892 F.3d at 726 (“[A] court ruling on a 12(b)(6) motion may rely on the complaint, its proper attachments, ‘documents incorporated into the complaint by reference, and matters of which a court may take judicial notice.'” (quoting Wolcott v. Sebelius, 635 F.3d 757, 763 (5th Cir. 2011))); Gines v. D.R. Horton, Inc., 699 F.3d 812, 820 (5th Cir. 2012); Funk v. Stryker Corp., 631 F.3d 777, 783 (5th Cir. 2011).

“The question therefore is whether in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and with every doubt resolved in his behalf, the complaint states any valid claim for relief.” Collins v. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 224 F.3d 496, 498 (5th Cir. 2000); accord Thompson v. City of Waco, 764 F.3d 500, 503 (5th Cir. 2014) (noting that at the 12(b)(6) stage the court's task “is to determine whether the plaintiff [has] stated a legally cognizable claim that is plausible, not evaluate the plaintiff's likelihood of success”); Leal, 731 F.3d at 410. “In other words, a motion to dismiss an action for failure to state a claim ‘admits the facts alleged in the complaint, but challenges plaintiff's rights to relief based upon those facts.'” Ramming, 281 F.3d at 161-62 (quoting Tel-Phonic Servs., Inc. v. TBS Int'l, Inc., 975 F.2d 1134, 1137 (5th Cir. 1992)); accord Yazdi v. Lafayette Par. Sch. Bd., No. 6:18-CV-00510, 2020 WL 5876703, at *2 (W.D. La. Sept. 30, 2020); Lopez-Flores v. Ibarra, No. 1:17-CV-00105, 2018 WL 6577955, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Mar. 12, 2018).

A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss must be read in conjunction with Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555. Accordingly, a district court should not dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim unless a plaintiff has failed to plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570; accord King, 46 F.4th at 355; IberiaBank Corp., 953 F.3d at 345 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678); Zastrow v. Hous. Auto Imps. Greenway Ltd., 789 F.3d 553, 559 (5th Cir. 2015); Leal, 731 F.3d at 410; Wilson, 667 F.3d at 595. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Coleman v. Sweetin, 745 F.3d 756, 763 (5th Cir. 2014) (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678); accord King, 46 F.4th at 355-56; Thompson, 764 F.3d at 503; Harold H. Huggins Realty, Inc. v. FNC, Inc., 634 F.3d 787, 796 (5th Cir. 2011).

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