CULLETON v. ORGANON USA INC, et al.,

Filing 5

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Clerk of Court shall transfer this action under 28 U.S.C. 1406(a) to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee Division. Signed by Honorable Rodney W. Sippel on 5/14/09. (ARL) [Transferred from Missouri Eastern on 6/5/2009.]

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI EASTERN DIVISION TRICIA L. CULLETON, Plaintiff, vs. ORGANON USA, INC., et al., Defendants. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

Case No. 4:09CV607 RWS

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER The multijurisdiction litigation case In re NuvaRing Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1964 has been assigned to this Court. Plaintiff recently filed her complaint in this district apparently under the impression that venue is proper here because the MDL case is based in this Court. Because this matter appears to have been filed in an improper venue I issued a show cause order on April 29, 2009, which directed Plaintiff to offer legal authority to support venue in this district and, in the alternative, to suggest whether the case should be dismissed or transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1406. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(a), when jurisdiction is founded only on diversity of citizenship, as in the present case, the action may be brought only in 1) a judicial district where any defendant resides, if all of the defendants reside in the same State; 2) a judicial district where a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred; or 3) a judicial district in which the defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction if there is no district in which the action may otherwise be brought. The complaint alleges that Plaintiff's injury occurred in Tallahassee, Florida. Based on

the numerous lawsuits filed in the United States District Court of New Jersey, all Defendants allegedly reside / have a principal place of business in that state. As a result, it appears that the proper venue of this lawsuit is either in Florida or New Jersey. In response to the show cause order Plaintiff has requested that this matter be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee Division. Plaintiff states that in the interest of justice that case should be transferred rather than dismissed base on a concern over the statute of limitation s on her claim. I find that the interest of justice is best served by transferring this matter to the District of Florida. Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Clerk of Court shall transfer this action under 28 U.S.C. 1406(a) to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee Division.

_______________________________ RODNEY W. SIPPEL UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE Dated this 14th day of May, 2009.