This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Today is a follow-up post on Bell v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharms, No. 17-1153, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90337 (W.D. PA. May 31, 2018). When we last blogged about this case back in February, the court had tossed out everything except negligence and fraud/misrepresentation claims on well-settled Pennsylvania law that prescription drug cases sound only in negligence. The court then dismissed the remaining claims for failure to satisfy TwIqbal pleading standards. Plaintiffs were afforded an opportunity to amend and re-plead the claims recognized under state law. They did. And once again, they don't get by TwIqbal.
So, what's missing this time around? The court starts out by noting that despite being dismissed for factual insufficiency, plaintiff made few factual revisions in the amended complaint. Id. at *4. So few that the court was able to essentially adopt its factual recitation from the first decision. Id. That's an underwhelming start and things don't improve for the plaintiff as the court examines each claim in turn.
Starting with plaintiff's catch-all negligence claim, the court found "[t]he amended complaint contains a boilerplate laundry-list of alleged negligence that is virtually identical to the negligence claim in the original complaint." Id. at *12. Since plaintiff just re-packaged his conclusory allegations from the original complaint, the amended complaint once again fails to state "any facts about how defendants breached their duty or how defendants' conduct caused [plaintiff's] injury." Id. at *13. At the heart of plaintiff's negligence claim was his allegation that defendants should have changed their label to warn about the risk of kidney injury following FDA approval. But for that claim to survive, plaintiff would have had to have pleaded what new information became available to warrant a change, what the changed warning should have said, and how any alleged breach was the cause of plaintiff's injury. Id. at *13-14. Absent all those pieces, plaintiff's negligence claim was dismissed.
Negligent misrepresentation was even easier to dismiss because it was an exact duplicate of the original complaint. Id. at *14. We've all heard the expression that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Well, same allegations equal same result. Dismissal.
Next up was plaintiff's negligent design claim. This claim was previously dismissed for failure to plead the availability of a safer, alternative design as required by Pennsylvania law. So, plaintiff argued he satisfied that requirement in the amended complaint by pointing to other available products. But different products are just that different products – not alternative ways to design the product at issue. Saying plaintiff could have taken a different product doesn't do anything to establish how the design of defendant's product was defective or how it could have been designed differently. Id. at *15. Another dismissal.
Last, plaintiff based his fraud claims on allegations that defendants concealed information about the risks of the drug from the FDA, the public, plaintiff, and plaintiff's physicians. But fraud claims don't just have to satisfy TwIqbal, they are held to the more rigorous Rule 9(b) standard. Generality won't suffice. Id. at *16. And plaintiff's claim was just that, too general. The amended complaint contained no allegations about what information was concealed. It was missing the "who, what, when, where and how" of defendants' alleged fraud, i.e., the "first paragraph of any newspaper story." Id. at *17. So, fraud was dismissed as well.
Despite the complete lack of factual support for any of plaintiff's claims, he once again asked for a chance to re-plead. The court, somewhat reluctantly, granted the request but made it clear that any final attempt by plaintiff to fix these pleading deficiencies would have to be a significant improvement. Specifically, plaintiff has
to clearly articulate the legal theory he is pursuing and to allege sufficient facts to make each element of the claim plausible. He must also eliminate his overbroad, conclusory "shotgun" allegations so that defendants are given adequate notice of what [plaintiff] claims they did wrong.
Id. at *18-19. Given plaintiff's track record, this seems like a fairly high hurdle to clear. Stay tuned to see if plaintiff tees it up for strike three.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.
