Ruling Favors Heart Valve Maker: U.S. District...

Ruling Favors Heart Valve Maker: U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp in Los Angeles denied class-action status to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 55,000 patients with potentially defective artificial heart valves manufactured by Shiley Inc. of Irvine. The ruling follows another court decision in Shiley’s favor last week. A state appellate court in Santa Ana ordered a lower court to reconsider a decision allowing a Canadian recipient of a Shiley valve to sue the company in California. Shiley, a subsidiary of New York-based Pfizer Inc., distributed about 86,000 Bjork-Shiley Convexo-Concave valves worldwide between 1979 and 1986.