(Editor's note: This story will be further updated).
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Bayer Corp., which challenged Madison County mass action suits involving more than 150 non-Illinoisans.
Bayer, maker of the contraceptive device Essure, sought relief from the high court after the Fifth District Appellate Court rejected its argument that non-Illinoisans are precluded from suing in Madison County based on the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bristol Myers Squibb in 2017.
In BMS, a group of plaintiffs, mostly non-Californians, sued Bristol-Myers Squibb in a California state court alleging its pharmaceutical company’s drug Plavix caused injuries. The company is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in New York, and maintains substantial operations in New York and New Jersey.
The U.S. Supreme Court held that the nonresident plaintiffs’ claims against a nonresident company were not connected to California. The court further held that BMS’s decision to contract with a California company to distribute the drug was insufficient to establish personal jurisdiction.
The Madison County Essure lawsuits were filed in 2016 by attorney Ann Callis of the Goldenberg firm in Edwardsville, and others, alleging the permanently implanted contraceptive devices were defective.
In one, lead plaintiff Nichole Hamby sued on behalf of 86 women - 73 of whom were not Illinois residents. In the other, lead plaintiff Christy Rios sued on behalf of 95 women - 87 of whom were not Illinois residents.
When it moved to dismiss the claims of the non-Illinoisans for lack of personal jurisdiction, Bayer cited the BMS decision. The company argued that it is not based in Illinois and Illinois is not its principal place of business.
Both Circuit Judge William Mudge, who presides over Hamby's case, and Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth, who presides over Rios's case, denied Bayer's motions to dismiss in orders entered April 18, 2018.
The judges held that there were key differences between the BMS case and the Essure cases filed against Bayer. They agreed with Rios and Hamby that Bayer conducted clinical trials in Illinois that became the basis for Essure's regulatory approval, created its marketing strategy in Illinois and launched its Essure accreditation program in Illinois. Therefore, they held that Illinois was a correct forum for the mass actions.