CE Director Dr. Michael A. Williams assists class in obtaining a $454 million judgment in the Kimberly-Clark / Halyard Health case.
The case was related to the sale of certain surgical gowns, with the product at issue a gown sold under the name “MicroCool Breathable High Performance Surgical Gown”. The class action lawsuit, filed by the Bahamas Surgery Center in October 2014, alleged that the defendants had falsely represented that their MicroCool surgical gowns provided the highest level of liquid barrier protection. In particular, the suit claimed that while the companies had marketed the gowns as impermeable and provided protection against serious diseases, they put health care workers at substantial risk.
After a two-week trial, in an unanimous verdict the federal jury found that Kimberly-Clark and Halyard Health misled buyers about the impermeability of the gowns, and had carried out their scheme with malice, oppression and/or fraud. The jury awarded the class $454 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Dr. Williams served as the expert on both class certification and damages. He has served as the damages expert in cases that collectively have resolved for more than $1 billion.