United States District Court, S.D. West Virginia, Charleston Division
IN RE COLOPLAST CORP. PELVIC SUPPORT SYSTEM PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION
v.
Coloplast Corp. Civil Action No. 216-cv-01332 THIS DOCUMENT RELATES TO: Glenda Dangerfield
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER
JOSEPH
R. GOODWIN, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
Pending
before the court is Coloplast Corp.'s
(“Coloplast”) Motion to Dismiss [ECF No. 23]. The
plaintiff has responded to the motion [ECF No. 25], and
Coloplast has replied [ECF No. 26], making it ripe for
decision. Also pending before the court is the
plaintiff's Motion for Leave to File Surreply [ECF No.
27]. For the reasons stated below, Coloplast's Motion
[ECF No. 23] is DENIED and the
plaintiff's Motion [ECF No. 27] is
GRANTED.
I.
Background
The
case resides in one of seven MDLs assigned to me by the
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation concerning the use
of transvaginal surgical mesh to treat pelvic organ prolapse
and stress urinary incontinence. In the seven MDLs, there are
approximately 42, 000 cases currently pending, approximately
140 of which are in the Coloplast MDL, MDL 2387.
In an
effort to efficiently and effectively manage this MDL, the
court decided to conduct pretrial discovery and motions
practice on an individualized basis so that once a case is
trial-ready (that is, after the court has ruled on all
summary judgment motions, among other things), it can then be
promptly transferred or remanded to the appropriate district
for trial. To this end, the court placed this and other cases
in Coloplast Wave 4. Pretrial Order (“PTO”) #
124, at 10 [ECF No. 14].
Managing
multidistrict litigation requires the court to streamline
certain litigation procedures in order to improve efficiency
for the parties and the court. Some of these management
techniques simplify the parties' discovery
responsibilities. PTO # 124, for example, provides that each
plaintiff in Wave 4 must submit a Plaintiff Fact Sheet
(“PFS”). See Id. at 1. Coloplast
concedes that the plaintiff “served her PFS in
accordance with the prescribed deadline.” Def.'s
Mot. 3. However, Coloplast contends that “the PFS was
deficient in its responses” and that the plaintiff
failed to cure those deficiencies. Id. On this
basis, Coloplast now seeks an order dismissing this case with
prejudice.
II.
Discussion
PTOs #
12 and 105 set forth specific requirements for completing and
serving the PFS. See generally PTO # 12 [ECF No. 40]
and PTO # 105 [ECF No. 572], In re Coloplast
Corp., Pelvic Support Sys. Prods. Liab. Litig., No.
2:12-md-02387. PTO # 12 establishes how defendants must
proceed when they receive an incomplete PFS within the
court-ordered deadline:
If defendants receive a PFS in the allotted time but the PFS
is not substantially complete, defendants' counsel shall
send a deficiency letter within 10 days of receipt of a PFS,
as applicable by e-mail and U.S. mail to the Plaintiffs'
Co-Lead Counsel and the plaintiffs' individual
representative counsel, identifying the purported
deficiencies. The plaintiff shall have twenty (20) days from
receipt of that letter to serve a PFS that is substantially
complete in all respects. This letter shall include
sufficient detail for the parties to meet and confer
regarding the alleged deficiencies.
PTO # 12, at ¶ 2c.
In this
case, the plaintiff served her PFS on Coloplast within the
May 20 deadline. On May 30, 2017, Coloplast notified
plaintiff's counsel via e-mail of the purported
deficiencies regarding the PFS. Def.'s Mot. Ex. B [ECF
No. 23-2].
In
response to Coloplast's Motion to Dismiss, the plaintiff
states that on June 16, 2017, she served on Coloplast an
amended PFS addressing the identified deficiencies. Pl.'s
Resp. 1. In its reply, Coloplast states that it “has
never seen this alleged Amended PFS” despite conducting
“a diligent search.” Def.'s Reply 1. In the
plaintiff's surreply, she states that she “emailed
an Amended PFS on June 16, 2017 to Defendant at the same
email addresses where Defendant acknowledged receiving the
original PFS.” Pl.'s Surreply 2 [ECF No. 27-1].
Attached to the plaintiff's surreply are two emails, both
sent from plaintiff's counsel to Coloplast's counsel
using the same respective email addresses. The first email,
dated May 19, 2017, includes the plaintiff's PFS as a
downloadable attachment. Pl.'s Surreply, Ex. A-1 [ECF No.
27-2]. The second email, dated June 16, 2017, includes the
plaintiff's amended PFS as a downloadable attachment.
Pl.'s Surreply, Ex. A-2 [ECF No. 27-3].
The
court finds that the plaintiff has provided the court with
documentation to support the claim that she addressed the
deficiencies in the PFS identified by Coloplast as required
by PTO # 12. Accordingly, dismissal of the plaintiffs case
with prejudiced is unwarranted.
III.
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