Defective Products: Anxiety Damage Recognised And Provisionally Compensated By Interim Relief Judge

By three court orders issued on 28 January 2016, the Nanterre Civil Court interim relief judge (Juge des référés du Tribunal de grande instance de Nanterre) granted a provision to 13 patients who had taken the Médiator® drug, in order to compensate for the anxiety damage they allegedly suffered on the basis of product liability law (art. 1386-1 and seq. of the French Civil Code).

The interim relief judge rejected the defendant's (the Laboratoires Servier) statute of limitation argument (the statutory limit is reached three years after the knowledge of the damage, the product's defect and the producer's identity). The judge did not rule on the delay's starting point, although both parties had different views on this matter.