In re Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings, Etc.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1981
• Docket Number: No. M 19-93A,4-71 Civ. 435,4-74 Civ. 372 and 4-81 Civ. 273.,M 19-93A
• Parties: In re COORDINATED PRETRIAL PROCEEDINGS IN ANTIBIOTIC ANTITRUST ACTIONS. INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER CORPORATION, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CYANAMID COMPANY, et al., Defendants. Peter R. COHEN and Deborah D. Riordan as the Administratrix of the Estate of Edward Joseph Riordan, deceased, Petitioners, v. INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER CORPORATION, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

520 F. Supp. 635

In re COORDINATED PRETRIAL PROCEEDINGS IN ANTIBIOTIC ANTITRUST ACTIONS.

INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER CORPORATION, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CYANAMID COMPANY, et al., Defendants.

Peter R. COHEN and Deborah D. Riordan as the Administratrix of the Estate of Edward Joseph Riordan, deceased, Petitioners, v. INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER CORPORATION, Respondent.

Nos. M 19-93A, 4-71 Civ. 435, 4-74 Civ. 372 and 4-81 Civ. 273.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Fourth Division.

July 24, 1981.

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Dorsey, Windhorst, Hannaford, Whitney & Halladay by Peter Dorsey and Peter S. Hendrixson, Minneapolis, Minn., for petitioners.

Leonard, Street & Deinard by Allen I. Saeks, Minneapolis, Minn., Jenner & Block by Thomas P. Sullivan and Richard T. Franch, Chicago, Ill., and Irell & Manella, Los Angeles, Cal., for respondent.

ORDER AND MEMORANDUM

MILES W. LORD, Chief Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION AND CASE HISTORY

This proceeding commenced upon a Petition filed on May 28, 1981, by Peter R. Cohen (Cohen) and Deborah D. Riordan (D. Riordan) as administratrix of the estate of Edward J. Riordan (E. Riordan), deceased, against respondent International Rectifier Corporation (Rectifier).

Cohen and E. Riordan (C&R) represented Rectifier in the matter of International Rectifier Corporation et al. v. American Cyanamid Company et al., 69-2484 HP, (Cal.), 70 Civ. 180 (N.Y.) and 474 Civil 372 (Minn.) from December 16, 1969, to August 14, 1975 (the "main action").

The main action was first transferred from California to New York, as a "tagalong" case by the Multidistrict Panel, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1407 for coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings together with over one hundred other cases there pending and known as the broad spectrum antibiotics litigation, In Re Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings In Antibiotic Antitrust Actions. See In Re Multidistrict Civil Antitrust Actions Involving Antibiotic Drugs, 295 F.Supp. 1402 (1968). The majority of those cases were disposed of in a negotiated settlement which was approved and affirmed by the New York District Court. West Virginia v. Chas. Pfizer & Co., 314 F.Supp. 710 (S.D.N.Y.1970), aff'd 440 F.2d 1079 (2d Cir. 1971). On November 30, 1970, Mr. Chief Justice Burger designated this Judge to the Southern District of New York, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 292 et seq., and on December 2, 1970, the Multidistrict panel assigned all of the sixty "non-settling" cases to this Court for coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1407(b). In Re Antibiotic Drugs, 320 F.Supp. 586 (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit. 1970); Pfizer Inc. v. Lord, 447 F.2d 122 (2d Cir. 1971). The main action was one of the "competitor cases" thereby assigned to this court. In Re Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings in Antibiotic Antitrust Actions, CCH 1972 Trade Cases 93,067 (D.Minn.1971). On May 17, 1971, this Court transferred the majority of the "non-settling" cases to the District of Minnesota for trial before this Court under 28 U.S.C. ? 1404(a). The basis of this Court's decision was that the convenience of the parties and witnesses and the interests of justice would be served by that transfer. This Court was affirmed in so doing. Pfizer Inc. v. Lord, 447 F.2d 122 (2d Cir. 1971). During coordinated and consolidated discovery proceedings before this Court, C&R were among the most active, if not the most active lawyers, in preparing the liability issues common to all cases for trial. On July 11, 1974, this Court transferred the main action to the District of Minnesota for trial, and on August 1, 1974, this Court consolidated the main action for trial with five other cases then set before this Court for trial. That consolidated trial began on November 18, 1974.

Prior thereto, four independent patent infringement actions instituted in the Central District of California against Rectifier, two by Cyanamid and two by Pfizer, (the "related actions"), were transferred to this Court by the Multidistrict Panel for coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings. One of those actions, entitled Pfizer Inc. v. International Rectifier, 73-58-R (Cal.); 4-73 Civil 188 (Minn.) (1973) (the "doxycycline case"), charging Rectifier with infringement of U.S. Patent No. 3,200,149 (the "doxycycline patent") was transferred to this Court by the Multidistrict Panel on March 12, 1973, for such coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings, In Re Antibiotic Drugs Antitrust Litigation, 355 F.Supp. 1400 (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit.1973), on the grounds, among others, that:

... the antitrust allegations asserted as a defense to Pfizer's infringement action involve issues already raised in the so-called "competitor actions" brought against Pfizer and others, which are pending in the transferee court. To this extent, the doxycycline action in California presents issues of fact common to the proceedings in Minnesota.

... We do not agree with plaintiff that, if its action is transferred to Minnesota, its attempt to enforce its patent will become "bogged-down" in the consolidated proceedings. Rather, we are convinced that the transferee judge, who has extensive familiarity with the issues and the parties involved in this litigation, is in the best position to schedule the necessary discovery ... with a minimum of delay and inconvenience to all parties concerned.

Id. at 1401-02.

C&R represented Rectifier in the four independent actions so transferred to this Court, and the doxycycline action consumed a substantial amount of this Court's time and effort during the coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings and even during the trial of the consolidated cases. Pfizer Inc. v. International Rectifier Corp., 182 U.S.P.Q. 595 (D.Minn.1974); Pfizer Inc. v. International Rectifier Corp., CCH 1975 Trade Cases (D.Minn.1975); Pfizer Inc. v. International Rectifier Corp., 186 U.S.P.Q. 511 (D.Minn.1975); Pfizer Inc. v. International Rectifier Corp., 538 F.2d 180 (8th Cir. 1976). In one of those cases, this Court said:

The commonality of issues in this patent infringement case and the other cases involved in these coordinated proceedings ... makes this Court the most efficient and practical forum for deciding the issues raised. In addition, this Court has acquired considerable background knowledge of both the issues and the proceedings before it. It would be impractical, therefore, to permit a situation to continue where the efforts of the principal counsel C&R in the patent infringement case would be split between a determination of issues in this Court, and the determination of some of the same issues in another forum.

Such a division of effort would irreparably injure the Defendants e. g., Rectifier in this case by subjecting them to duplicative proceedings, unnecessary expense, and impairment of their ability to prepare for trial. Moreover, it would also cause some hardship and delay to many of the other related cases consolidated with this one for pretrial preparation.

. . . . .

Because Pfizer has failed to establish that it would suffer injury, there appears to be no reason to risk the impairment of this Court's jurisdiction, the harm to Defendants, and the delay of this and many other related actions before the Court by denying the injunction requested by Defendants.

In addition, the Court also finds that Pfizer's decision to proceed in a new forum ... amounts to forum shopping. It is an effort to circumvent this court's jurisdiction ... the forum it initially chose .... This forum shopping appears to be a method of doing one of two things:

Either delaying the present proceedings ... which are before this Court, or frustrating them entirely and taking the power which is legally assigned to this Court when the matters are properly before this Court for adjudication and frustrating the efforts of the Court to arrive at an effective resolution of the problem.

. . . . .

This Court has authority to enjoin a party from proceeding in another forum when it has first obtained jurisdiction of the case. Such an injunction may issue when, as here, it is necessary to prevent the waste and duplication of effort involved in twice trying the same issues .... This Court has the power, therefore, to prevent a party from engaging in conduct which would destroy the status quo or impair this Court's ability to render an effective judgment and award meaningful relief.

182 U.S.P.Q. 595.

The main action, and the five other cases consolidated for trial therewith, proceeded in trial before this Court from November 18, 1974, to August 14, 1975, when the main action settled. As this Court said in In Re Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings in Antibiotic Antitrust Actions, CCH 1976-2 Trade Cases, 69,775:

In order to conserve judicial time, the six cases were consolidated to be tried before two juries. The competitor cases were to be tried to one jury while the United States Government case along with other purchasers (the Union Health and Welfare cases, the Mutual of Omaha case and the California Physicians Service case) were to be tried to another jury.

. . . . .

Eight months after the start of trial International Rectifier settled. (International Rectifier et al. v. American Cyanamid Co. et al., 4-74 Civil 372) ... for $33 million ....

In January of this year 1976, the Mutual of Omaha case and the Malcolm-Gregg case also settled. (Mutual of Omaha v. American Cyanamid Co. et al., 4-71 Civil 6; Malcolm-Gregg Co. Inc. et al. v. Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc. et al. Civil 4-74-373).

. . . . .

This Court has received a special mandate to conduct this litigation "with scrupulous fairness and impartiality." ... Pfizer v. Lord, 456 F.2d 542 532 (8th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 97 976, 92 S.Ct. 2411, 32 L.Ed.2d 676 (1972).

After the main action settled, C&R were retained as special trial counsel by the plaintiffs and their counsel in the Mutual of Omaha class action cases and also by the plaintiffs and their co...