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ST. LOUIS — Plaintiffs in Essure birth control litigation against Bayer will not be able to have their case heard in St. Louis City Circuit Court for now, but they can amend their complaint setting forth reasons why claims of dozens of out-of-state plaintiffs should be heard in that court.
U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig of the Eastern District of Missouri on Jan. 8 denied the plaintiffs' motion to reconsider an order she entered in July that was based on the landmark personal jurisdiction ruling in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California.
In her earlier order, Fleissig dismissed the claims of all non-Missouri plaintiffs, except for one Illinoisan who claims she had her Essure device implanted in Missouri. Out of 94 plaintiffs named in the case, only seven are citizens of Missouri, the order states.
In an amended complaint that was procedurally improperly filed and therefore not previously considered, the plaintiffs claim that the "defects" of personal jurisdiction are cured because they say that St. Louis was "ground zero" for the launch of Essure. The plaintiffs claim that connection satisfies the requirements established in Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Fleissig is now allowing plaintiffs to amend their complaint, after they had initially failed to seek leave to amend their complaint. She wrote that defendants will not be prejudiced by allowing the amended complaint.
"Although Defendants urge that allowing the amended complaint would be futile, the Court believes Plaintiffs should be given the opportunity to amend their complaint and set forth their bases for filing suit in Missouri," Fleissig wrote.
Fleissig also held that in light of the amended complaint, she would deny without prejudice plaintiffs’ motion for jurisdictional discovery.
"The Court notes that related litigation in other state and federal courts will soon commence with key depositions," she wrote. "Therefore, the Court will enter a Rule 16 Order contemporaneously with this Order to allow the parties in this matter to coordinate discovery efforts with those in other cases to avoid duplicitous and inefficient discovery."