Plaintiff Barred from Adding Medical Malpractice Claim to Ethicon Hernia Patch Action

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge has denied a plaintiff’s motion to amend his complaint in an Ethicon hernia repair patch case to add a malpractice claim against his surgeon, ruling that granting the late-filed motion would cause defendants undue prejudice.

In a Nov. 15 order, Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts explained defendants “would be prejudiced by the delay caused by the addition of a wholly new theory of liability — medical malpractice — against a new party, with its attendant procedural requirement of referral to the Massachusetts Superior …