Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct.

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 30, 2014
DocketA140035
StatusPublished

This text of Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct. (Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct., (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 7/30/14 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY, Petitioner, v. A140035 THE SUPERIOR COURT OF SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY, (San Francisco County Super. Ct. J.C.C.P. No. 4748) Respondent, BRACY ANDERSON, et al., Real Parties in Interest.

This case calls upon us to decide whether California has personal jurisdiction over a non-resident corporate defendant on unique facts. Defendant Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) has been sued by dozens of California residents in a coordinated proceeding before the San Francisco Superior Court. They allege defects in Plavix, a drug BMS manufactures and sells throughout the country. Jurisdiction over BMS as to these plaintiffs is conceded. The question presented is whether California also has jurisdiction over BMS regarding identical Plavix defects claims brought by hundreds of non-resident co-plaintiffs, the real parties in interest here (RPI), in the same coordinated proceeding, consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. BMS moved below to quash service of the summons regarding the RPI’s complaints for lack of personal jurisdiction. The RPI argued that California has jurisdiction over BMS, whether it be general, that is, jurisdiction over claims unrelated to the forum state, or specific, that is, jurisdiction based upon the relationship of the RPI claims, BMS, and California. The trial court denied BMS’s motion based on its

1 conclusion that California has general jurisdiction over BMS, and did not address the issue of specific jurisdiction. BMS filed a petition for writ of mandate in this court to reverse the trial court’s ruling. We summarily denied this petition. However, on the same day that we did so, the United States Supreme Court issued Daimler AG v. Bauman (2014) ___ U.S. ___ [134 S.Ct. 746] (Daimler), which limited the application of general jurisdiction under the Fourteenth Amendment. Our own Supreme Court then granted BMS’s petition for review and transferred the matter back to us for further consideration. Upon our review of the parties’ further briefing and Daimler, we conclude California does not have general jurisdiction over BMS based upon the facts of this case. This does not end our inquiry, however. Although the trial court did not address the issue of specific jurisdiction, we do so now because the underlying facts we rely upon are undisputed. In order to resolve this issue, we apply the time-honored test for the application of specific jurisdiction adopted by the United States Supreme Court in International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945) 326 U.S. 310, 316 (International Shoe) and reaffirmed by it and the California Supreme Court over the past 65 years in order to determine whether such jurisdiction is consistent with the traditional conception of “ ‘fair play and substantial justice.’ ” (Daimler, supra, 134 S.Ct. at p. 754.) Having done so, we conclude that BMS has engaged in substantial, continuous economic activity in California, including the sale of more than a billion dollars of Plavix to Californians. That activity is substantially connected to the RPI’s claims, which are based on the same alleged wrongs as those alleged by the California resident plaintiffs. Further, BMS does not establish it would be unreasonable to assert jurisdiction over it. Therefore, we conclude that it is consistent with due process to require BMS to defend the RPI’s claims before the trial court in coordination with the claims of the California resident plaintiffs. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order denying the motion to quash based upon the doctrine of specific jurisdiction.

2 BACKGROUND Trial Court Proceedings On March 12, 2012, eight separate complaints, each including California residents and non-residents as plaintiffs, were filed in the San Francisco Superior Court by or on behalf of 659 individuals, consisting of 84 California residents and 575 non-residents (the RPI), who allegedly were prescribed and ingested Plavix. They (or their spouses) claim that they suffered adverse consequences as a result. Each complaint contains the same 12 causes of action.1 The two named defendants in each of these cases are McKesson Corporation (McKesson), which is alleged to be a pharmaceutical distribution and marketing company organized under Delaware law and headquartered in San Francisco, and BMS, which is alleged to be a pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing company that makes and markets Plavix throughout the United States, organized under Delaware law and headquartered in New York. Each of the complaints alleges in identical terms that defendants introduced Plavix in 1997 and heavily marketed it directly to consumers by falsely representing it “as providing greater cardiovascular benefits, while being safer and easier on a person’s stomach than aspirin.” According to the complaints, defendants knew that those claims were untrue and that ingesting Plavix involved “the risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, internal bleeding, blood disorder or death [which] far outweighs any potential benefit.” On April 11, 2012, prior to being served with seven of these eight cases, BMS removed them to federal court. They were all remanded on August 10, 2012.

1 Strict Products Liability; Strict Liability—Manufacturing Defect; Negligence; Breach of Implied Warranty; Breach of Express Warranty; Deceit by Concealment— Civil Code sections 1709, 1710; Negligent Misrepresentation; Fraud by Concealment; Violation of Business and Professions Code section 17200; Violation of Business and Professions Code section 17500; Violation of Civil Code section 1750; Loss of Consortium.

3 On September 27, 2012, BMS filed motions to quash service of the summons regarding the complaints, but not with respect to the California resident plaintiffs.2 The plaintiffs began discovery regarding these motions.3 Meanwhile, pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 404.3 and rule 3.540 of the California Rules of Court,4 Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, as Chair of the Judicial Council, authorized the presiding judge of the superior court to assign the eight San Francisco cases, with another, to a coordination trial judge, which the presiding judge did on April 25, 2013. BMS was permitted to refile a consolidated motion to quash with respect to the RPI, which it did on July 9, 2013. In this motion, BMS noted in passing that “[the RPI] cannot invoke specific jurisdiction here because it is limited to cases where the ‘controversy is related to or arises out of [the] defendant’s contacts with the forum,’ ” citing DVI, Inc. v. Superior Court (2002) 104 Cal.App.4th 1080, 1089. Its principal argument, however, was that, under the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown (2011) ___ U.S. ___ [131 S.Ct. 2846] (Goodyear), the trial court could not assert general jurisdiction over BMS unless BMS were “at home” in California. According to BMS, its California contacts did not rise to that level since it was neither headquartered nor incorporated here. BMS also argued, relying on factors that apply in a specific jurisdiction inquiry, that it would

2 BMS’s petition acknowledges that the facts developed in the trial court with respect to BMS’s California contacts “may be sufficient to vest specific personal jurisdiction over BMS” as to the 84 resident plaintiffs’ claims. In subsequent briefing and oral argument, BMS has conceded that California has jurisdiction over it with respect to their claims.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bristol-myers-squibb-v-super-ct-calctapp-2014.