According to Law 360, U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez removed a transvaginal mesh injury lawsuit involving device manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and Dr. Alejandro Tey from Texas state court on the grounds that the plaintiff only involved Tey in order to keep the case at the state level.
Maria DeLeon, a Texas resident, filed a suit against Johnson & Johnson and Tey claiming both were liable for her transvaginal mesh injuries. Law 360 reported. However, the judge agreed with New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson that DeLeon only added Tey as a defendant in the lawsuit to prevent the trial from going to multidistrict litigation, as Tey is also a Texas resident.
Related: Find Your State’s Deadline to File an Injury Claim
According to Righting Injustice, the company claimed DeLeon hid why she filed the suit against Tey as well for a full year just to keep the trial at the state level. The site reported DeLeon tried to conceal Tey’s true involvement as lawsuits can’t be sent to federal court after they had been filed for more than a year. Yet, the site reported if parties have been found to have acted in bad faith, by law, the case can be moved to a multidistrict court. Law 360 reported only one sentence of DeLeon’s 33-page report involved Tey’s liability. The sentence stated that DeLeon disagreed with Tey’s decision to implant the device in DeLeon, as doing so was below care standards. However, the judge’s decision came just three days before the one year deadline.
“This complete failure to address the standard of care which Dr. Tey should have followed, the breach of that standard or the proximate cause of plaintiffs’ damages amounts to no expert at all,” the judge said. “It is clear then, that plaintiffs cannot establish a cause of action against Dr. Tey.”