A Risperdal lawsuit filed recently by a 24-year-old man who claims to have experienced abnormal breast growth from the antipsychotic drug Risperdal has been dismissed by a Pennsylvania judge, after it was discovered that the case was filed too late, based on the state’s statute of limitations.

Although the outcome of this particular trial doesn’t necessarily predict the outcome of other Risperdal male breast growth lawsuits pending in state and federal courts nationwide, many Risperdal lawsuits involving male breast growth involve plaintiffs who also took Risperdal as children, and it is not known how many of those Risperdal lawsuits will be impacted by the same type of statute of limitations issues and how it could influence negotiations with Johnson & Johnson to reach Risperdal settlement agreements.

In an order issued on Jan. 13, Judge Arnold New dismissed a Risperdal male breast growth lawsuit filed by plaintiff Joshua W. in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on March 10, 2014. In his ruling however, Judge New indicated that Joshua knew or should have known about the cause of his abnormal breast growth by June 2009, which means the two-year statute of limitations in Pennsylvania would have ended in June 2011.

Risperdal Lawsuit Statute Of Limitations

All product liability lawsuits are governed by statutes of limitations, which vary by state and determine how much time an individual has to file a lawsuit from the time of the alleged injury.

In this case, Joshua resided in Harrisburg, Penn. when he allegedly developed gynecomastia. Pennsylvania has a two-year statute of limitations for these types of lawsuits.

According to the plaintiff’s Risperdal lawsuit, he took the antipsychotic drug as a minor from 1997 until sometime in 1998. At the end of 1998, he observed that he was suffering from symptoms of gynecomastia.

However, his Risperdal lawsuit maintained that unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2013, when he saw a television advertisement about the pending Risperdal litigation, that he became aware of the connection between Risperdal side effects and gynecomastia.

But in the court’s decision, the judge found that the statute of limitations began to run on June 30, 2009 for plaintiffs who began taking Risperdal prior to October 2006, when the drug’s warnings were updated.

Risperdal Lawsuits Over Male Breast Growth

Johnson & Johnson has been facing Risperdal gynecomastia lawsuits for years, and the number of cases brought against the drug maker in recent years has continued to grow, as more families and young men across the country discover that Risperdal side effects may have caused their male breast growth.

Joshua’s Risperdal gynecomastia lawsuit is one of about 1,200 Risperdal lawsuits currently pending in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas over allegations that Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit failed to provide adequate warnings to consumers and the medical community about the risk of male breast growth associated with Risperdal use.

Many of the Risperdal gynecomastia lawsuits brought against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals have been filed by young adults who were unaware of the connection between Risperdal and male breast growth side effects until recently.

Unfortunately, this recent ruling regarding the statute of limitations, which requires that any legal actions be filed within a certain amount of time after the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known that the cause of action arose, may put some of these Risperdal lawsuits in jeopardy.