Steven A. Stadtmauer
Member

Mr. Stadtmauer is a member of the firm and practices with the Medical and Life Sciences Industry Team.  He divides his time among several of the firm’s practice groups, including the Mass Torts and Industry-Wide Litigation and Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Groups.  His practice is focused on litigation and consulting supporting pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturer clients.  He defends clients in mass tort, class action and product liability litigation, including state coordinated and federal multi-district litigation throughout the country.  Clients include innovator and generic manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics, nutraceuticals, consumer and household products, as well as the suppliers of raw materials, chemicals and other components of these products.

He presently serves as counsel for several generic drug and nutritional supplement manufacturers facing multiple medical monitoring and consumer fraud class actions stemming from FDA action.  These claims include allegations of injuries, GMP deficiencies and improper marketing.  He also is defending numerous other clients at the trial and appellate levels, including a biotechnology manufacturer accused of processing improperly harvested human tissue in a New Jersey based federal MDL and a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in a New Jersey state court class action.

In prior roles as national coordinating, regional or local counsel, Mr. Stadtmauer has organized the nationwide defense of a large New Jersey-based nutritional supplement manufacturer from dozens of injury claims relating to ephedra ingestion and other manufacturing claims.  He has represented an innovator hormonal contraceptive manufacturer in statewide New Jersey litigation and achieved a landmark appellate dismissal for another manufacturer targeted for cardiac injuries associated with a widely-prescribed antidepressant medication.  Other high profile cases included the resolution of hundreds of heart and brain injury claims in mass tort litigation around the country over “fen-phen” diet drugs and phenylpropanolamine. 

Mr. Stadtmauer represents clients in other industries, including a retail mortgage lender prosecuting claims for reimbursement of misappropriated funds, a major agricultural products manufacturer defending farm worker injury claims and several consumer products manufacturers from claims over allegedly defective sports equipment actions.  He has significant experience litigating in the areas of commercial contract, banking and finance, commercial paper, e-commerce, realty and construction and has handled such matters at the trial and appellate levels in New York and New Jersey state and federal courts.  Prior to joining Harris Beach, he had extensive experience litigating medical malpractice claims, complex insurance coverage disputes and municipal and general liability claims.

Believing that swift, efficient resolution can often be in a client’s best interests, Mr. Stadtmauer has achieved favorable results in alternative dispute resolution settings, such as at arbitrations, mediations, court settlement conferences and through informal negotiation.  Such success, however, is often the result of the painstaking preparation, attention to detail and assiduous advocacy that are the hallmarks of his practice.

Committed to helping clients achieve their business goals, as well as prevent problems before they occur, he consults with manufacturers and pre-market developers to review intellectual property and conduct liability audits.  Such reviews help identify and control potential weaknesses in package documentation, marketing and sales literature, government regulatory compliance and procedures for production quality control, recordkeeping and claims reporting.  Where advisable, he works with other firm attorneys and Harris Beach’s unique non-legal resources to assist with development of regulatory and litigation contingency plans and corporate compliance.  These are all part of his pursuit of the most effective liability prevention and defense program for each client.

Past and present representative matters:

• Digitek® Product Liability Litigation (New Jersey state and federal courts): pharmaceutical manufacturing defect and medical monitoring claims.
• Human Tissue Products Liability Litigation (MDL in New Jersey federal court): medical monitoring and “fear of injury” claims resulting from implants of inappropriately harvested human tissue donations.
• Ephedra Products Liability Litigation (MDL in New York federal court, New Jersey, New York and many other state courts): claims of brain, heart and lung injury relating to ingestion of ephedra-containing nutritional supplements.
• Diet Drug Products Liability Litigation (MDL, New Jersey, New York and many other state courts): claims of heart and lung injury relating to ingestion of fen-phen diet drugs.
• Westerlund v. Wyeth, et al. (New Jersey state court): class action and medical monitoring allegations relating to ingestion of pharmaceutical amiodarone.
• New Jersey PPA Litigation (New Jersey state-designated mass tort): claims of injury relating to ingestion of PPA-containing cough and cold remedies.
• New York PPA Litigation (New York state coordinated litigation): claims of injury relating to ingestion of PPA-containing cough and cold remedies.
• Ramirez v. AGCO Corporation (New Jersey state court): claim of injury from contact with implement input drive connected to power take-off on tractor.
• Burton v. PNC Bank, N.A. (New York state court): allegations of negligence against bank for honoring forged checks; summary judgment granted on appeal.
• Richards v. PNC Bank, N.A. (New Jersey federal court): allegations against bank relating to $20 million fraud by co-depositor; summary judgment granted.
• Mead v. PNC Bank, N.A. (New Jersey state court): allegations against bank relating to alleged fraud and embezzlement by family members.
• Eon Labs, Inc. v. Able Laboratories, Inc. (New Jersey federal court): trade dress infringement by generic pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Reported cases:

• DeAngelo-Shuayto v. Organon USA, Inc., 2007 WL 4365311 (D.N.J. Dec. 12, 2007)
• Jones v. Eon Labs, Inc., 841 N.Y.S.2d 558 (1st Dept. 2007)
• Heckstall v. Pincus, 797 N.Y.S.2d 445 (1st Dept. 2005)
• Joseph v. Solow Building Co., 726 N.Y.S.2d 642 (1st Dept. 2001)
• Kleckley v. Trump Management Inc., 655 N.Y.S.2d 556 (2d Dept. 1997)
• American Home Products Corp. v. Adriatic Ins. Co., 286 N.J. Super. 24 (App. Div. 1995)