Fuqua v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

926 F. Supp. 2d 538, 2013 WL 781615
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 15, 2013
DocketCivil Action Nos. 11-6043 (FLW), 11-6045(FLW), 11-6047(FLW), 11-6048(FLW), 11-6051(FLW), 11-6053(FLW), 11-6055(FLW), 11-6059(FLW), 12-3533(FLW), 12-3534(FLW), 12-3535(FLW), 12-3536(FLW), 12-3537(FLW), 12-3543(FLW), 12-3538(FLW), 12-3542(FLW), 12-3547(FLW), 12-3548(FLW), 12-3550(FLW), 12-3551(FLW), 12-3553(FLW), 12-5774(FLW), 12-5793(FLW), 12-5796(FLW)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 926 F. Supp. 2d 538 (Fuqua v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fuqua v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., 926 F. Supp. 2d 538, 2013 WL 781615 (D.N.J. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

WOLFSON, District Judge:

The above-captioned matters are toxic tort actions brought by administrators or administratrices on behalf of the respective decedents (collectively “Plaintiffs”), against Defendant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (“BMS” or “Defendant”). Defendant timely removed these cases from state court, where a parallel mass tort litigation is pending.1 In these federal actions, Plaintiffs seek, inter alia, pecuniary losses that allegedly arose from the decedents’ exposure to, and death from, toxic substances emitted from a BMS facility located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, pursuant to the New Jersey Wrongful Death Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1 et seq. Here, Defendant moves to dismiss those claims for failure to comply with the Act’s applicable two-year statute of limitations. For the reasons set forth herein, Defendant’s motions are GRANTED, and Plaintiffs’ wrongful death claims are dismissed without prejudice.

[542]*542BACKGROUND

1. Plaintiffs’ Complaints

For the purposes of these motions, the Court need not recount facts regarding each of the plaintiffs; rather, a brief recitation of the procedural history will suffice. In and around May 2008, Plaintiffs’ counsel filed more than a hundred identical complaints in New Jersey state court against BMS alleging exposure to harmful chemicals from BMS’s New Brunswick plant. More recently, Plaintiffs’ counsel began filing more complaints in state court, which were then removed by Defendant. Included in those complaints are the wrongful death claims asserted by Plaintiffs in these matters.

Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that decedents, who were living in close proximity to BMS’s facility in New Brunswick, New Jersey, suffered fatal bodily injuries and illnesses as a result of their alleged exposure to toxic substances emitted from the facility. See Third Amended Master Complaint (the “Complaint”), ¶¶ 5, 19. In addition to other survivorship claims — which are not the subject of Defendant’s motion to dismiss — Plaintiffs brought wrongful death claims on behalf of the heirs-at-law, who allege that they were dependent upon the respective decedents and sustained pecuniary losses as a result of their deaths. See Compl., ¶¶ 111-112. It is not disputed that all the wrongful death claims in these twenty-four actions were filed more than two years after the death of each decedent.

Consequently, Defendant posits that Plaintiffs should be time barred from bringing such claims. In that connection, Defendant submits that the discovery rule principles do not apply to toll the limitations provision for wrongful death claims. In response, Plaintiffs maintain that the discovery rule and other principles of equitable tolling are applicable to save their otherwise untimely claims.

2. State Court Actions

This is not the first time that the parties have brought this issue to a court. In the parallel state mass tort actions, Defendant had moved, in late 2008, to dismiss similar wrongful death claims brought by state plaintiffs based on the same statute of limitations grounds. Likewise, those plaintiffs raised substantially similar discovery rule and equitable arguments as do Plaintiffs in this case.2 The state court (the “State Court”) rendered a written opinion on the dispute.

On the issue of whether the Wrongful Death Act’s statute of limitations can be tolled by the discovery rule, the State Court, having conducted a review of the relevant case law, held that the Supreme Court of New Jersey “may be inclined” to apply discovery rule for tolling purposes. See In re Bristol-Myers Squibb Env. Contamination Litig., No. 281, slip op. at 6 (N.J.Super. Ct. Law Div. Jan. 28, 2009) (“In re Bristol-Myers ”). The State Court also went on to hold that equitable tolling may be appropriate in situations when “the complainant has been induced or tricked by his [or her] adversary’s misconduct into allowing the filing deadline to pass.” Id. at 7 (citations and internal quotations omitted). Ultimately, resting its decision on a theory of fraudulent concealment, the State Court found that if there is any evidence — revealed during discovery — that “the defendant behaved in such a way to prevent plaintiff from ascertaining [its] identity [in order to bring wrongful death claims],” equitable tolling would be appropriate. Id. at pp. 7-8. In that connection, the court refused to dismiss the state plaintiffs’ wrongful death claims without [543]*543first affording plaintiffs an opportunity to take discovery to explore their equitable defenses to the statute of limitations bar.

On the motions before this Court, Defendant asks me to revisit the statute of limitations question. More specifically, the relevant inquiry here is whether the discovery rule or any other equitable principles should apply to toll the statute of limitations for these Plaintiffs who have waited many years long after the statute of limitations has run to bring their wrongful death claims.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

When reviewing a motion to dismiss on the pleadings, courts “accept all factual allegations as true, construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and determine whether, under any reasonable reading of the complaint, the plaintiff may be entitled to relief.” Phillips v. County of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 233 (3d Cir.2008) (citation and quotations omitted). In Bell Atlantic Corporation v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), the Supreme Court clarified the 12(b)(6) standard. The Court held that the factual allegations set forth in a complaint “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. at 1965. In affirming that Twombly standards apply to all motions to dismiss, the Supreme Court explained as follows. First, “the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1948-49, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). Second, “only a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss.” Id. Therefore, “a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are no more than conclusions, are not entitled to the assumption of truth.” Id. at 1949. Ultimately, “a complaint must do more than allege the plaintiffs entitlement to relief. A complaint has to ‘show’ such an entitlement with its facts.” Fowler v. UPMC Shadyside, 578 F.3d 203, 211 (3d Cir.2009). Moreover, in deciding a motion to dismiss, the Court may consider the allegations in the complaint, exhibits attached to the complaint, matters of public record, and documents that form the basis of Plaintiffs’ claim. Lum v. Bank of Am., 361 F.3d 217, 222 n. 3 (3d Cir.2004).

The Third Circuit has reiterated that “judging the sufficiency of a pleading is a context-dependent exercise” and “[s]ome claims require more factual explication than others to state a plausible claim for relief.” West Penn Allegheny Health System, Inc. v. UPMC,

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926 F. Supp. 2d 538, 2013 WL 781615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fuqua-v-bristol-myers-squibb-co-njd-2013.