California Court of Appeal

CRYOLIFE, INC. v. SUPERIOR COURT OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, H024960

Plaintiff cannot state a cause of action for strict products liability because defendant is a tissue bank that as a matter of law provided a service, not a product, when it supplied an allegedly infected cadaver tendon for plaintiff's knee surgery. Because defendant is a tissue bank, it is a health care provider within the meaning of Code of Civil Procedure section 425.13,1 and therefore a claim for punitive damages cannot be asserted in the absence of an order granting leave to amend the complaint.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/25/2003
• Published 07/25/2003

Judges

• Premo, Acting P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
•  Moore, Winter, Skebba & McLennan, Raymond B. Moore, Matthew, R. Rungaitis, Glendale, for Petitioner Cryolife, Inc., Law Offices of G. Dana Scruggs, G. Dana Scruggs, III, Santa Cruz, Nathan C. Benjamin, for Real Party in Interest Alan J. Minvielle.


• For Appellees:
  
• No appearance for respondent Santa Cruz County Superior Court.