In re Prempro Products Liability Litigation
| Citation | 591 F.3d 613 |
| Decision Date | 06 January 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-1373.,No. 09-1205.,No. 09-1250.,09-1205.,09-1250.,09-1373. |
| Parties | In re PREMPRO PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION, Sandra Kirkland; Patricia Lawton-Wilson; Monica Lee; Katherine Maiello; Dorothy Mallette; Nola McAdoo; Lillian Meeks; Brenda Nicholson; Joanne Nickel; Barbara Norvell; Reva Orr; Regina Parker; April Patterson; Kathleen Perkinson; Donna Peters; Joanne Peterson; Mary Phillips; Viola Plieseis; Joyce Podhayski; Kathleen Preston; Lydia Ross; Diane Simon; Ruth Sitzmann; Mary Sorenson; Flora Spencer; Sue Standriff; Patricia Stone; Tena Valentine; Diana Walters; Marion Walters; Judy Wegenast; Charlene Weinmann; Helen Whaley; Marilyn Will; Francine Wixen; Joyce Wood, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Joyce Yonushewski, Plaintiff, Phyllis Goode; Carol Haney; Patricia Kruse; Sally Laufketter; Ann Moran; Judith Petersen; Patricia Rogers; Jewell Tolkin; Donna Wheeler; Charlene McComas; Muriel Pitsinger; Ruby Robbins; Mary Steele; Donna Taube; Joyce Waugh; Alba Cordon; Bertha Watcher; Joan Thompson, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Nancy States; Anna Soloman, Plaintiffs, v. Wyeth, and its divisions; Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; ESI Lederle; Pfizer, Inc.; Pharmacia & Upjohn Company; Pharmacia Corporation; Barr Laboratories, Inc.; Mead Johnson & Company; Solvay Pharmaceuticals; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Watson Laboratories, Inc.; Greenstone Ltd.; Does 1-10, Defendants-Appellees. In re Prempro Products Liability Litigation, Rick Jasperson, as Trustee for Next-of-Kin Decedents Gail Gilliam, Marcia Kunkel, Elizabeth Roszak, Mary Solis, Bea Zissel a/k/a Phyllis Bea Zissel, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Wyeth, and its divisions; Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; ESI Lederle; Pfizer, Inc.; Pharmacia & Upjohn Company; Pharmacia Corporation; Does 1-10, Defendants-Appellees. Dorothy Allen; Judith Allen; Loretta Andrews; Janet Arbogast; Karen Awald; Carol Bannerman; Phyllis Barnes; Joanne Barrett; Joanne Black; Mary Bowden; Hazel Burgess; Joyce Burpee; Virginia Campbell; Adrianne Carrera; Lois Carter; Margaret Chamness; Mary Chrisco; Peggy Clemons; Sally Collins; Barbara Couch; Mary Dawson; Lois Duffy; Linda Eells; Frances Farr; Marjorie Flaman; Margaret Foltz; Wanda Foltz; Delois Foster; Jo Garrison O'Neil; Sharon Haemker; Margaret Harris; Louise Hess; Wanda Hinceman; Alice Holtzman; Rita Hren; Nancy Hunter; Yvonne Hutchinson; Glenda Ivey; Doris Jerome; Grace Kiger; Patsy Anderson; Juanita Brouwer; Nata Cargan; Nancy Jo Carter; Jan Costa Rydjeske; Wilma Cowart; Patricia Fernau; Isabel Fragoso; Doris Gist; Helen Penny Aros, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Patricia Brunner, Plaintiff, Joan Casto; Marian Conner; Janet Edwards; Wilma Faulkner; Nancy Katte; Nan Maury; Betty Bethea, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Rachel Epstein; Marguerite Hjalmarson, Plaintiffs, v. Wyeth, and its divisions; Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; ESI Lederle; Pfizer, Inc.; Pharmacia & Upjohn Company; Pharmacia Corporation; Barr Laboratories, Inc.; Mead Johnson & Company; Greenstone Ltd.; Does 1-10, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit) |
Martin Nebrida Buchanan, argued, San Diego, CA, Howard B. Miller, Joseph C. Gjonala, on the brief, Los Angeles, CA, for appellant.
William Hoffman, argued, Washington, DC, Michael Anthony Lindsay, Linda Susan Svitak, John Philip Borger, James Anderson O'Neal, Bridget Maria Ahmann, Carrie L. Hund, Amy R. Freestone, Minneapolis, MN, Stephen Louis Urbanczyk, Grant Andrew Geyerman, John W. Vardaman, Frank Lane Heard, III, William Hoffman, Washington, DC, Joseph Paul Thomas, Linda E. Maichl, Keny Carson Green, Cincinnati, OH, Steven J. Glickstein, Alan Rothman, New York, NY, G. Dawn Shawger, Alan R. Vickery, Dallas, TX, on the brief, for appellee.
Before MURPHY, BRIGHT and RILEY, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiffs, women and next-of-kin of deceased women, sued a number of manufacturers of hormone replacement therapy drugs, asserting the drugs caused breast cancer. The defendants, manufacturers of hormone replacement therapy drugs ("manufacturers"), removed the cases to federal court. The plaintiffs moved to remand to state court on the grounds that complete diversity of citizenship was lacking, thereby depriving the court of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court concluded that the plaintiffs' claims were misjoined to defeat diversity jurisdiction, dropped the non-diverse plaintiffs, and dismissed these cases. Plaintiffs appeal, and we reverse the district court's orders denying plaintiffs' motions to remand and granting the manufacturers' motions to dismiss duplicative cases.
Hormone replacement therapy ("HRT") drugs are used in the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Such symptoms include hot flashes, chills, headache, irritability, and vaginal atrophy. HRT drugs consist of a combination of estrogen and progestin. The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a group focused on defining the risks and benefits of strategies that could reduce heart disease, cancer, and fractures in post-menopausal women, began studying the effects of HRT drugs in the 1990s. The WHI enrolled 161,809 post-menopausal women between 50 and 79 years of age into a set of clinical trials.
WHI studied the effect of estrogen plus progestin in 16,608 women with an intact uterus. Women were either assigned a daily dose of estrogen plus progestin or a placebo. In 2002, an independent data and safety monitoring board revealed that the number of cases of breast cancer in the estrogen plus progestin group had crossed the boundary established as a signal of increased risk. The independent board recommended that the trial be ended early based on an increased breast cancer risk. The results of the WHI study were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. See Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women, 288 J. Am. Med. Ass'n. 321-333 (2002), available at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/288/3/321.
This case concerns three lawsuits. The Kirkland suit was brought by 57 women who each alleged injuries resulting from their use of HRT medications. The Kirkland plaintiffs alleged they each developed breast cancer after taking HRT drugs that were manufactured, marketed, and sold by one or more of eleven manufacturers. Fourteen Kirkland plaintiffs are citizens of the same state as at least one of the manufacturers. Three of those fourteen plaintiffs asserted claims against manufacturers with the same citizenship. For example, Nancy States is a citizen of Pennsylvania, the same state as Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company that manufactured and marketed HRT drugs she took.
The Jasperson suit was brought by Rick Jasperson, as trustee of the next-of-kin of six decedents who used HRT drugs. The Jasperson plaintiffs alleged that in each case, the next-of-kin sustained injuries when a woman family member developed breast cancer as a result of taking HRT drugs that were manufactured, marketed, and sold by one or more of six defendants. One of the six decedents, Elizabeth Mendelson, was a citizen of New Jersey, the same state as Pharmacia Corporation, Wyeth, and Pharmacia & Upjohn Company, companies that manufactured and marketed HRT drugs that Mendelson took.
The Allen suit was brought by 60 women who also alleged they each developed breast cancer as a result of HRT medications manufactured, marketed, and sold by one or more of eight defendants. Five Allen plaintiffs are citizens of the same state as at least one of the defendants. Three of these five plaintiffs asserted claims against manufacturers who were citizens of the same state. For example, Rachel Epstein is a citizen of New York, the same state as Pfizer, a company that manufactured and marketed HRT drugs that she took.
The Kirkland, Jasperson, and Allen plaintiffs filed suits for damages in Minnesota state court in July 2008. In each of the three consolidated cases, the plaintiffs alleged they or a decedent family member had developed breast cancer from taking HRT medications. The plaintiffs asserted state law claims for negligence, strict liability, breach of implied warranty, breach of express warranty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and statutory violations of the False and Misleading Advertising Act, the Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The manufacturers removed all three cases to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. In the manufacturers' removal petitions, they argued diversity jurisdiction existed under the fraudulent misjoinder doctrine. They alleged that the plaintiffs joined their claims together against the manufacturers to defeat diversity jurisdiction. The manufacturers argued that the plaintiffs' claims were fraudulently misjoined, stating that those claims did not arise out of the same transaction or occurrence, a requirement for joinder under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20(a).
The plaintiffs filed motions to remand the cases to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, asserting that complete diversity between the plaintiffs and defendants did not exist. Before the plaintiffs' motions were addressed, the litigation came before the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ("MDL"). The Kirkland and Jasperson cases were transferred to the Eastern District of Arkansas and assigned to an MDL judge. Plaintiffs requested that the MDL court rule on their pending motions to remand to state court.
Before the MDL court ruled on the question of remand, on December 19, 2008, the manufacturers moved to dismiss most of the claims brought by the Kirkland plaintiffs and all of the claims brought on behalf of the Jasperson decedents on the grounds that the plaintiffs' claims were duplicative of earlier filed California claims.1 Plaintiffs' oppositions to the motions were due on December 30,...
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