On February 5, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the motion to dismiss wins in four cases involving 21 separate plaintiffs for Tucker Ellis medical device client Mentor Worldwide LLC. The decisions end a three-year saga of attempts by plaintiffs’ counsel to thwart removal attempts and establish a JCCP coordinated proceeding in California state court. The plaintiffs claimed that they received Mentor’s silicone gel breast implants which leaked or ruptured due to a manufacturing defect, resulting in multiple health complications. The plaintiffs also claimed that Mentor had failed to warn doctors, patients, and the Food & Drug Administration of the alleged risks associated with the implants.

The panel found that the California federal court correctly denied plaintiffs’ motions to remand because Mentor proved by clear and convincing evidence that a purported local defendant – NuSil, a supplier of medical-grade silicone used in Mentor’s implants – was fraudulently joined. The court affirmed the August 2019 district court decisions that plaintiffs’ claims were preempted by the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and insufficiently pled.

Dustin Rawlin, Monee Hanna, Jeffrey Sindelar, and Rachel Byrnes represented Mentor.

Read more in Law360 here.