Sokoloski v. American Home Products

59 Pa. D. & C.4th 225, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedJanuary 9, 2003
Docketno. 0080
StatusPublished

This text of 59 Pa. D. & C.4th 225 (Sokoloski v. American Home Products) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sokoloski v. American Home Products, 59 Pa. D. & C.4th 225, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2003).

Opinion

TERESHKO, J.,

Plaintiffs, Judith and Joseph Sokoloski, now appeal this court’s order dated November 14, 2001 granting the motion for summary judgment in favor of defendants, Les Laboratoires Servier and Servier Amerique (referred to collectively as Les Servier). Plaintiffs are one of 22 other plaintiffs against whom this order was entered. Pursuant to the order of the Superior Court (attached as exhibit A [not published herein]), these appeals are consolidated.

These actions were part of the diet drug Phentermine-Fenfluramine (Phen-Fen) mass tort litigation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time of this litigation, this writer was the supervising judge of the Complex Litigation Center and, in that capacity, supervised the mass tort program.

The mass tort program included all the Phen-Fen cases against defendant American Home Products Corporation (AHP). At the time of the entry of the instant order, all the then-open cases against AHP were settled, leaving Les Servier as the only open defendant. In due course, these actions against Les Servier were on track to proceed to trial when, on May 21,2001, Les Servier filed its global motion for summary judgment.

FACTUAL HISTORY 1 AND LEGAL ANALYSIS

In what follows, the factual history and legal analysis of this litigation are considered together.

[227]*227In the early 1990s, a new diet drug was launched upon the American consumer. It consisted of using the drug fenfluramine in conjunction with the drug phentermine to create the now well-known “Phen-Fen” therapy. The use of phentermine is not at issue here. Rather, the fenfluramine component of Phen-Fen is our principal focus, as well as dexflenfluramine, its chemical “cousin,” which subsequently was used as an alternative to phentermine.

For commercial purposes, fenfluramine had become the brand name “Pondimin” and dexfenfluramine had become the brand name “Redux.”

Les Servier, a corporate citizen of France, with its principal place of business in France, manufactured the bulk powdered ingredient in both Pondimin and Redux and licensed the use of the active ingredient to various entities which ultimately joined the AHP corporate family.

Les Servier never established a corporate presence in the United States.

The powdered product that was licensed and sold to the AHP entities in the United States was converted by AHP into the final product of Phen-Fen. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the final product for sale by AHP. The right to do this was sought by and granted to AHP as an exclusive right in the United States. There was no evidence to show that Les Servier ever sought or received from the FDA the right to sell the final product.

Since AHP entities were the sole licensees of Les Servier and had exclusive approval from the FDA, Les Servier argues that AHP was the sole manufacturer, distributor, marketer and promoter of Pondimin and Redux.

[228]*228Against this background, a review that includes the federal diet drug litigation is now appropriate.2

After the medical complications attendant on the use of Pondimin and Redux became known, the Pondimin and Redux products were withdrawn from the U.S. market in a joint announcement made by AHP and the FDA on September 15, 1997.

An avalanche of litigation soon followed in state and federal courts. All the federal litigation was consolidated for pretrial purposes in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, under the Multi District Litigation Rules (MDL). Because of the overlap of the state and federal cases, as well as of state and federal litigators, pretrial discovery and settlement negotiations were conducted as an ongoing joint exercise.

During the discovery and settlement processes, on October 12, 1999, a class action complaint was filed as Brown v. American Home Products Corporation. It is instructive to read Judge Bechtle’s language in understanding the significance of this class action complaint.

“The Brown complaint was filed as a vehicle for combining the claims of class members asserted in pending federal and state diet drug litigation throughout the country into a single complaint to facilitate class action treatment of those claims for settlement purposes. (T.R. 5-2-00.) The settlement agreement was reached with respect to a class consisting of all persons in the United States who ingested Pondimin and Redux and their as[229]*229sociated consortium claimants. (Exhibit P-3 at 19 of 48.)” In re Diet Drugs, Brown v. AHP at *19.

The foregoing takes on significance because of what was required to establish and certify this class.

In In re Diet Drugs, Brown v. AHP, Judge Bechtle had before him the joint motion of the class representatives and the sole defendant, American Home Products, for an order certifying and approving the nationwide settlement class embodied in the settlement agreement entered into between the parties on November 19, 1999. Id.

In order to arrive at the point where approval of such motion would be proper, certain underlying requirements had first to be met.

Class requirements are stated generally under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Fed.R.C.P. 23 et seq. Specifically, Fed.R.C.P. 23 establishes the “commonality” requirement in 23(a)(2) while identifying four prerequisites to a class action:

“One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.”

In class counsel’s proposed findings of fact and conclusion of law (appendix, tab. 2, exhibit “H”) it was represented that, “Diet drugs themselves were essentially a single product, marketed by a single major manufacturer. ...” Id. (Referring to AHP.)

[230]*230In In re Diet Drugs, Brown v. AHP, under the commonality requirements, Judge Bechtle adopted the following facts proposed by plaintiffs.

“Here, there exist several common issues to the class to support a finding of predominance and cohesiveness. With regard to common questions of fact, the diet drugs at issue here are essentially a single product — in that Pondimin and Redux are chemically related — marketed by a single major manufacturer — AHP.” Id. at *41.

“In addition, plaintiff’s claims in this litigation all stem from allegations involving a common course of conduct followed by AHP. (internal citations omitted) Plaintiff’s negligence and failure to warn claims will revolve around AHP’s conduct and knowledge in developing and marketing Pondimin and Redux. Although there are some individual differences among class members, the common class-wide focus on AHP’s knowledge and conduct predominate such that judicial efficiency will be improved through the class mechanism ....” Id.

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Bluebook (online)
59 Pa. D. & C.4th 225, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sokoloski-v-american-home-products-pactcomplphilad-2003.