Mulcahy v. Eli Lilly & Co.

SCHULTZ, Justice.

The central issue here is whether we will depart from our rule of causation that a plaintiff in a products liability action bears the burden of proving the defendant manufactured or supplied the product that caused the injury. Plaintiffs maintain they are injured due to the ingestion in 1949 of a drug, a synthetic estrogen compound of stilbene derivatives which we shall refer to as DES. Plaintiffs are not able to specifically identify the manufacturer of the drug ingested. Consequently, they commenced this action against a group of drug companies who allegedly manufactured…