## Facts

- A grandmother ingested diethylstilbestrol (DES), a prescription drug, during pregnancy with her daughter (the child’s mother).
- Years later, the daughter gave birth prematurely to Charles Grover, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
- Plaintiffs alleged DES caused defects in the mother’s reproductive system, which then caused the child’s premature birth and resulting injuries.
- The child was never exposed to DES, either directly or in utero.
- In diversity litigation, a federal district court certified to the Ohio Supreme Court whether Ohio law recognizes a cause of action for this third-generation, preconception injury theory.

## Issues

1. Whether Ohio law extends a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s product-liability duty to a person who was never exposed to the allegedly defective drug, when injury is claimed through multigenerational biological effects.
2. Whether Ohio recognizes a “preconception tort” claim by a child for injuries allegedly caused by a grandmother’s ingestion of DES during pregnancy with the child’s mother.

## Decision

- The Ohio Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative.
- The court held that a pharmaceutical company’s liability for distributing or manufacturing a defective prescription drug does not extend to persons who were never exposed to the drug, either directly or in utero.
- Because the plaintiff child alleged no direct or in utero exposure, Ohio law did not recognize the asserted cause of action.

## Legal Principles

- Product-liability duty for defective prescription drugs is limited to claimants who were exposed to the drug, directly or in utero.
- Foreseeability and proximate cause concepts do not, as a matter of Ohio law, justify extending liability to remote, third-generation claimants with no exposure to the product.
- Courts may impose limiting rules to prevent open-ended, multigenerational liability where causal chains become temporally and relationally remote.
- Major expansions of liability to remote generations are treated as policy choices better suited to legislative action than judicial creation.

## Conclusion

Ohio does not recognize a third-generation DES “preconception tort” claim where the injured child was never exposed to the drug; a manufacturer’s liability for a defective prescription drug ends with exposed persons and does not extend to non-exposed descendants.


Grover v. Eli Lilly & Co., 591 N.E.2d 696 (Ohio 1992)