Pa. Supreme Court Allows Out-of-State Ethicon Mesh Cases

Pa. Supreme Court Allows Out-of-State Ethicon Mesh Cases

Introduction

Johnson & Johnson's attempt to get all out-of-state plaintiffs dismissed, from the Ethicon pelvic mesh litigation in Philadelphia, was rejected by an intermediate Pennsylvania appellate court.

In an opinion submitted on April 3, by a three-judge Superior Court panel, it was determined that ties between Ethicon ( a J&J subsidiary) and Secant, a Pennsylvania-based company involved in the pelvic mesh manufacturing, was sufficient to establish jurisdiction in the Keystone state. The decision was in response to J&J's attempt to overturn a December 2017 ruling by the supervising judge of a pelvic mesh mass tort program held in Philadelphia County. The judge had said that since the company was headquartered in New Jersey and had business connections with Pennsylvania, it was an apt venue for out-of-state residents to pursue claims over faulty implants. The recent decision marks the third time the Superior Court has ruled whether the out-of-state claims must be dismissed from Pennsylvania for lack of jurisdiction.

Ethicon faces 90 lawsuits in Philadelphia, where the company has lost to plaintiffs in multi-million dollar verdicts. Pelvic mesh lawsuits targeting at Ethicon are consolidated as a part of multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2327; In Re: Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation) overlooked by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia.