Judge Arnold New, who is in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, has ruled that the Plaintiffs in the pelvic mesh injury cases had sufficient connections to Philadelphia to properly give the state court jurisdiction. Defendants Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific had argued that the Plaintiffs’ claims were not sufficiently related to Pennsylvania. Specifically, Johnson & Johnson sought to have approximately 118 cases filed by non-Pennsylvania Plaintiffs transferred for lack of personal jurisdiction. Plaintiffs argued in response that the fact that Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific were registered and conduct substantial business in Philadelphia was sufficient to allow jurisdiction. Plaintiffs further claimed that the Defendant manufacturers voluntarily conduct regular business in Philadelphia, and thus, were subject to the jurisdiction of the court. The court agreed.
Last February Judge New consolidated all pelvic mesh cases filed in Philadelphia in the “Complex Litigation Center Pelvic Mesh Mass Tort Program,” which includes cases against the largest transvaginal mesh manufacturers in the United States. Additional lawsuits have been consolidated into several multidistrict litigations (MDLs) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
According to media reports, there are approximately 500 pelvic mesh personal injury suits filed in Philadelphia. Pelvic mesh devices may be used to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP). As we have previously reported, thousands of women have been injured by the devices, resulting in chronic pain, revision surgery, and other injuries.
Source: Law360.com, NewsInferno.com
