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Article: California court rules tissue banks are immune from strict liability; national implications uncertain.
- Article from:
- Transplant News
- Article date:
- October 14, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Transplant Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Much in the same way a person's immune system can reject a transplant, tissue banks are legally immune to liability claims if one of their transplanted tissue products is tainted by disease, a California appeals court has ruled.
Distribution of tissue transplantation is a "service," not a sale of goods, thus tissue banks are not strictly responsible for product liability, according to the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District.
A petition for review of the case was filed August 29th in the California Supreme Court.
The ruling overturned a strict liability and punitive damage claim against CryoLife, Inc., an Atlanta-based ...