Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Federal Jurisdiction — Grable

The massive Average Wholesale Price multidistrict litigation (MDL) against pharmaceutical manufacturers is pending in the District of Massachusetts. Last year, District Judge Patti B. Saris denied the State of Arizona's motion to remand its case because the claims on behalf of Medicare Part B beneficiaries raised a substantial federal issue creating federal jurisdiction Supreme Court in Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Engineering & Manufacturing, 545 U.S. 308 (2005). That gave rise to the issue in In re Pharm. Indus. Average Wholesale Price Litig., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68193 (D. Mass. Sept. 17, 2007). The defendants sued by the States of Illinois and Ohio — in lawsuits that predated Grable by more than 30 days — initially attempted to remove within 30 days of the Supreme Court’s decision, contending that Grable itself constituted an ‛order or other paper“ giving rise to the right of removal. Having lost that, they claimed that the decision in the State of Arizona case — a case that happened to have been filed within 30 days of Grable and involved the same issues and many of the same defendants as the Illinois and Ohio cases — constituted an ‛order or other paper“ giving rise to the right of removal. Judge Saris rejected this latter attempt in the most recent opinion, reasoning that: ‛Permitting the decisions of this MDL Court to open new avenues of removal for related cases would repeatedly open the flood gates to new removal actions. It is inappropriate for this Court to further expand the scope of § 1446(b).“ Held, the supplemental notices of removal filed by the Illinois and Ohio defendants were untimely.

Share this article:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Recent Posts

Archives