Lawyers for the drug compounding firm blamed for a deadly nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis are moving forward with a strategy to get the growing number of lawsuits consolidated in federal court and want a Boston-based judge to preside over all of them.
Federal court records show that 37 cases originally filed in state and county courts have been transferred to federal courts across the country at the request of lawyers representing the New England Compounding Center.
The lawyer for the company, with headquarters in suburban Framingham, Mass., says it wants the cases eventually to be consolidated in Massachusetts.
That would include six suits originally filed in circuit court in Nashville, Tenn., and subsequently transferred to U.S. District Court.
Forty other cases against the company were filed in federal courts to begin with, pushing the number of pending federal suits to more than 70. Dozens of additional suits still remain in local courts. Lawyers for the compounding firm have predicted that the final total will top 400.
In several of the transferred cases, New England Compounding’s lawyers have said that their ultimate goal is to have all of the cases consolidated in Boston before U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who currently has a dozen cases assigned to him.
“Judge Saylor has the judicial experience needed to steer this anticipated massive litigation on a prudent course to an expeditious conclusion,” New England Compounding’s attorney wrote in a brief.
“That’s what their plan is,” said Nashville attorney Randy Kinnard, who represents Colette Rybinski of Smyrna, Tenn., the widow of Thomas W. Rybinski, who was the first patient to be diagnosed with fungal meningitis. Kinnard also represents nine other victims.
A panel of federal judges is scheduled to decide in January whether the cases should be consolidated and, if so, in what court. A move to have that decision issued on an expedited basis was turned down.
“Consolidating these cases to a single federal court will save time for all parties, save judicial resources by having one judge preside and streamline the discovery process,” said Fred Fern of Harris Beach, the lead defense firm for the drug compounder.
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