Liggins et al v. Abbvie Inc. et al
Filing
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MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER signed by the Honorable Matthew F. Kennelly on 2/18/2016: For the reasons discussed in this decision, the Court dismisses the claims of plaintiff Charlie Bernaix for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Court also denies plaintiffs' motion to remand. The Court declines at this time to rule on defendants' motion to dismiss regarding the other plaintiffs' claims. The Court wishes to discuss with counsel how the case should proceed ahead. The case is s et for a telephone status conference on March 1, 2016 at 12:45 p.m. Chicago time. Counsel should confer to determine who should participate in the conference call; someone should volunteer to set it up; and they are to advise the Court by February 29, 2016 regarding the call-in information. (mk)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
In re Testosterone Replacement
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Therapy Products Liability Litigation
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No. 14 C 1748
Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings
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MDL No. 2545
_____________________________________)__________________
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ALVIN LIGGINS, CHARLIE BERNAIX,
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JOHN GOLDMAN, BRIAN ROBERTS,
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JAMES PULLIAM, SAMUEL SNYDER,
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FRANK SPANGLER, ANGEL VEGA,
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AARON RUNFALO, and
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MICHALE BIONISIO,
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Plaintiffs,
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No. 15 C 11058
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v.
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ABBVIE INC. and ABBOTT
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LABORATORIES,
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Defendants.
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MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
MATTHEW F. KENNELLY, District Judge:
Defendants AbbVie Inc. and Abbott Laboratories are pharmaceutical companies
incorporated in Delaware, with their principal places of business in Illinois.1 Plaintiffs are
ten unrelated individuals from nine different states (Missouri, Illinois, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Mississippi, Florida, West Virginia, Indiana, and New York) who jointly sued
defendants in state court in Missouri, alleging that they suffered personal injuries caused
by defendants' testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) drug AndroGel. Defendants
1
In their complaint, plaintiffs state that Abbott Laboratories is an Illinois
corporation, but in the memorandum in support of their motion to remand, they accept
defendants' assertion that both defendants are Delaware corporations. For purposes of
deciding the motions before the Court, it makes no difference whether Abbott
Laboratories is incorporated in Illinois or in Delaware.
1
removed the case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
based on diversity of citizenship. Once in federal court, defendants filed a motion to stay
proceedings pending the likely transfer of the case to this multidistrict litigation (MDL)
proceeding, as well as a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and failure to
state a claim. Plaintiffs filed a motion to remand the case to state court, contending that
the federal court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because of a lack of complete
diversity of citizenship. After the parties' motions were fully briefed but prior to any
rulings, the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) transferred the case to this
Court, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, for inclusion in the MDL proceeding.
For the reasons discussed below, the Court grants defendants' motion to dismiss
for lack of personal jurisdiction with respect to the claims asserted by Illinois plaintiff
Charlie Bernaix. Having thereby preserved diversity of citizenship, the Court denies
plaintiffs' motion to remand. In addition, the Court declines to rule at this time on
defendants' motion to dismiss the remaining plaintiffs' claims, and because the case has
already been transferred, defendants' motion to stay pending transfer is moot.
Background
Like others whose cases have been consolidated in this MDL proceeding,
plaintiffs allege that they have suffered cardiovascular, thromboembolic (blood clotting),
or cerebrovascular injuries caused by their use of defendants' TRT drug AndroGel. The
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved AndroGel for the
treatment of hypogonadism, a condition in which a male produces no or very low
testosterone in conjunction with an associated medical condition. Plaintiffs allege,
however, that AndroGel is unreasonably dangerous and defectively designed, and that
2
defendants falsely marketed AndroGel to physicians and consumers as a safe and
effective treatment for conditions other than hypogonadism. According to plaintiffs,
defendants marketed and sold AndroGel throughout the United States, including in the
state of Missouri, where they maintain a registered agent and are licensed to do
business.
According to the allegations in the complaint, only one plaintiff suffered injury in
connection with defendants' activities in Missouri. Plaintiffs allege that plaintiff Alvin
Liggins, a Missouri citizen, used AndroGel in St. Louis and suffered a deep vein
thrombosis there as a result. The nine other plaintiffs are citizens of other states who
suffered injuries in other states, and the locations where they used AndroGel were either
in other states or are unspecified in the complaint. Plaintiffs do not identify the locations
where they or their doctors viewed any advertisements or marketing material for
AndroGel. Charlie Bernaix, the sole Illinois plaintiff, applied AndroGel while in Illinois and
suffered a deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism while in Illinois.
As indicated earlier, after plaintiffs filed their case in Missouri state court,
defendants removed the case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Missouri. It was then transferred to this Court and consolidated with the MDL
proceeding. Though defendants removed the case to federal court on the basis of
diversity of citizenship, plaintiffs deny that diversity exists and have moved to remand the
case to state court on the ground that a federal court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.
Discussion
For a federal court to have subject matter jurisdiction in a case premised on
diversity of citizenship, there generally must be complete diversity between the parties;
3
that is, no plaintiff may be a citizen of the same state as any defendant. See
Strawbridge v. Curtiss, 7 U.S. 267, 267 (1806). Because both defendants and one of the
plaintiffs are citizens of Illinois, plaintiffs argue that complete diversity is lacking. Thus,
according to plaintiffs, defendants' removal to federal court was improper, and the Court
should remand the case. Defendants, on the other hand, maintain that the case falls
under an exception to the complete diversity requirement. They argue that a Missouri
court cannot exercise personal jurisdiction over defendants with respect to the claims
brought by the non-diverse Illinois plaintiff, Bernaix. Thus, they contend, because "there
is no reasonable basis for the imposition of liability under [Missouri] law," the doctrine of
"fraudulent joinder" allows the court to assume jurisdiction temporarily and "dismiss the
nondiverse party from the case and retain subject matter jurisdiction over the remaining
claims." Murphy v. Aurora Loan Servs., LLC, 699 F.3d 1027, 1031 (8th Cir. 2012). In
the alternative, defendants argue that the Court may exercise its discretion to address
the personal jurisdiction question first before reaching the question of subject matter
jurisdiction.
Plaintiffs make three arguments in response. First, they argue that the lack of
complete diversity makes the subject matter jurisdiction issue simple and that the Court
should address that issue first and remand the case prior to deciding the issue of
personal jurisdiction. Second, they argue that the fraudulent joinder doctrine, which
involves an assessment of the substantive merits of the claims involving the non-diverse
parties, is not applicable because personal jurisdiction is a non-merits issue. Third, they
argue that defendants' contacts with the state of Missouri provide a reasonable basis for
a Missouri court to exercise personal jurisdiction over them for the entire case. After
4
discussing the appropriate source of federal law to apply in this case, the Court turns to
the parties' jurisdictional arguments.
A.
Applicable law
For cases transferred by the JPML to an MDL proceeding, the transferee court
applies the law of the circuit in which it sits to decide issues of federal procedure like
those presently before the Court. See In re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., Tires Prods.
Liab. Litig., 256 F. Supp. 2d 884, 888 (S.D. Ind. 2003); cf. McMasters v. United States,
260 F.3d 814, 819 (7th Cir. 2001) ("Only where the law of the United States is
specifically intended to be geographically non-uniform should the transferee court apply
the circuit precedent of the transferor court."). The parties submitted their briefs on these
motions while the case was still pending in the Eastern District of Missouri, and thus the
parties' arguments assume that the Eighth Circuit supplies the governing federal law.
But the parties do not cite any Eighth Circuit decision that would control the outcome in
this case, and as discussed below, the Court does not believe that any Seventh Circuit
opinion is controlling either. In addition, the parties have made no request to amend or
supplement their briefing. Thus the fact that the parties did not file their briefs directly in
this Court poses no significant problem.
Parties asserting federal subject matter jurisdiction—defendants, in this case—
bear the burden of establishing that jurisdiction exists. Farnik v. FDIC, 707 F.3d 717,
721 (7th Cir. 2013). In determining whether removing defendants have met their burden
to establish subject matter jurisdiction, courts accept as true the allegations in the
complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs' favor. See Denton v.
Universal Am-Can, Ltd., No. 12 C 3150, 2012 WL 3779315, at *1 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 30,
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2012). In an MDL proceeding, the MDL transferee court has jurisdiction over cases
transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 only if the court from which the case was transferred
would have jurisdiction. In re Testosterone Replacement Therapy Prods. Liab. Litig.
Coordinated Pretrial Proceedings, No. 14 C 1748, 2015 WL 5768574, at *3 (N.D. Ill.
Sept. 30, 2015). If a defendant challenges a court's personal jurisdiction over it, the
plaintiff bears the burden of establishing jurisdiction. Id. In addressing the issue of
personal jurisdiction, therefore, the Court asks whether plaintiffs have carried their
burden to show that a district court in the Eastern District of Missouri, the transferor
court, could exercise jurisdiction over defendants.
B.
Addressing personal jurisdiction before subject matter jurisdiction
Responding to defendants' contention that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction
over the non-Missouri plaintiffs' claims, plaintiffs urge the Court to exercise its discretion
to decide the subject matter jurisdiction question first. See Ruhrgas AG v. Marathon Oil
Co., 526 U.S. 574, 587-88 (1999) (stating that if subject-matter jurisdiction involves "no
arduous inquiry," then "both expedition and sensitivity to state courts' coequal stature
should impel the federal court to dispose of that issue first"). Plaintiffs argue that the
subject matter jurisdiction analysis is simple because of the clear lack of complete
diversity between the parties. Thus they urge the Court to remand the case on the
grounds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction and thereby avoid grappling with the more
difficult personal jurisdiction question.
Plaintiffs attempt to characterize the subject matter jurisdiction analysis as easy
and straightforward by suggesting that it can be confined to a simple review of the
named parties' citizenship. This oversimplifies the issue. Defendants have asserted a
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plausible argument that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Bernaix's (and the
other non-Missouri plaintiffs') claims and that his claims were fraudulently joined to
destroy complete diversity. The Court cannot simply ignore or summarily reject this
argument to make its subject matter jurisdiction analysis easier. And indeed, though
colorable and warranting consideration, defendant's fraudulent joinder argument raises
issues on which there is no controlling Seventh Circuit precedent, such as whether the
fraudulent joinder doctrine applies where the alleged deficiency in the joined claim
involves a non-merits issue like personal jurisdiction, and whether the doctrine applies to
the joinder of plaintiffs at all. As another district court commented while addressing a
similar situation, the possibility of fraudulent joinder can make the subject matter
jurisdiction analysis "rather complicated," especially if the inquiry involves "the more
unusual question of 'fraudulent joinder' of a plaintiff." Foslip Pharm., Inc. v. Metabolife
Int'l, Inc., 92 F. Supp. 2d 891, 899 (N.D. Iowa 2000) (citing Ruhrgas AG, 526 U.S. at
587).
The personal jurisdiction question defendants raise, on the other hand, is more
straightforward and does not present a "complex question of state law."2 Thus it would
not offend principles of federalism to address that question first before addressing the
more "difficult and novel" subject matter jurisdiction question. Ruhrgas AG, 526 U.S. at
588; see also id. at 587–88 ("[I]f removal is nonfrivolous and personal jurisdiction turns
on federal constitutional issues, 'federal intrusion into state courts' authority . . . is
minimized.'") (quoting Asociacion Nacional de Pescadores v. Dow Quimica, 988 F.2d
2
Defendants have not argued that any feature of Missouri state law prevents
the Court from exercising personal jurisdiction. They rely, instead, on the familiar federal
due process constraints that they believe restrict the Court's exercise of personal
jurisdiction over them.
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559, 566–67 (5th Cir. 1993)).
In addition, as defendants note, their subject matter jurisdiction argument
depends upon their contention that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction. Thus unless the
Court were to conclude at the outset that the fraudulent joinder inquiry has no application
in this case, the Court will necessarily confront the personal jurisdiction question
regardless of the sequence in which it conducts the analysis. At a minimum, therefore, it
is within the Court's discretion to analyze the personal jurisdiction question first, as the
Supreme Court has recognized, see id., and as plaintiffs concede, see Pl.'s Mem. in
Supp. of Mot. to Remand 5. See also Evans v. Johnson & Johnson, No. CIV.A. H-142800, 2014 WL 7342404, at *3 (S.D. Tex. Dec. 23, 2014) ("[T]he most efficient course of
action is to consider the motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, which results
in dismissal of the claims of all plaintiffs except the single [diverse] plaintiff [and]
thereafter deny the motion to remand because no non-diverse plaintiffs remain . . . .").
To promote judicial economy, the Court will first address the issue of its personal
jurisdiction over defendants as to Bernaix's claims. If personal jurisdiction is lacking, the
Court may dismiss his claims, thereby preserving diversity of citizenship without delving
into the fraudulent joinder analysis.
C.
Personal jurisdiction over defendants as to Bernaix's claims
The parties agree that neither defendant is a citizen of Missouri. A court may still
exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant, consistent with the Due
Process Clause, by asserting general or specific jurisdiction over the defendant based on
its having certain "minimum contacts with [the forum state] such that the maintenance of
the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice." Int'l Shoe
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Co. v. State of Wash., Office of Unemployment Comp. & Placement, 326 U.S. 310, 316
(1945). An assertion of general jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant allows a court
to hear all claims against that defendant but requires its contacts to be "so 'continuous
and systematic' as to render [the defendant] essentially at home in the forum State."
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, 131 S. Ct. 2846, 2851 (2011)
(quoting Int'l Shoe, 326 U.S. at 317). In contrast to general jurisdiction, a court may
assert specific jurisdiction over a foreign defendant in a particular case even in a state
where the defendant is not "essentially at home," as long as the defendant's "suit-related
conduct . . . create[s] a substantial connection with the forum State." Walden v. Fiore,
134 S. Ct. 1115, 1121 (2014). See also Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v.
Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 414 (1984) (describing specific jurisdiction situation as one in which
the "controversy is related to or arises out of a defendant's contacts with the forum").
Plaintiffs do not contend that defendants' sales and marketing activities within
Missouri were sufficiently continuous and systematic to allow Missouri courts to exercise
general jurisdiction over them. And defendants do not dispute that their marketing and
sale of AndroGel that gave rise to the Missouri plaintiff's claim creates a substantial
connection with Missouri, such that a Missouri court would have specific jurisdiction over
defendants for that plaintiff's claims. Thus the parties' personal jurisdiction dispute boils
down to a single question: whether the existence of specific jurisdiction over a defendant
for one plaintiff's claims allows a court to exercise jurisdiction over that same defendant
as to the other, unrelated plaintiffs' claims.
The Court has not found any Seventh Circuit case that squarely addresses this
question. The Court concludes, however, based on the rationale underlying the
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"minimum contacts" requirement as well as sensitivity to "traditional notions of fair play
and substantial justice," Int'l Shoe, 326 U.S. at 316, that the specific personal jurisdiction
inquiry in this case must be conducted separately for the claims of each individual
plaintiff. Thus every plaintiff would thus have to show that his claims arise from, or are
related to, defendants' conduct in Missouri. Plaintiffs have made no such showing with
respect to Bernaix's claims. They do not allege that he or his physician encountered any
advertisements for AndroGel in Missouri, that he purchased or used AndroGel in
Missouri, or that he suffered an injury in Missouri. Rather, his claims are based entirely
on defendants' conduct in, and contacts with, Illinois. Thus a Missouri court would have
no reasonable basis to exercise specific jurisdiction over defendants for his claims.
Plaintiffs maintain that their claims, and the Missouri contacts giving rise to them,
should not be viewed in isolation. It is undisputed that a Missouri court would have
jurisdiction over Liggins' claims; thus, they argue, the Missouri court would also have
jurisdiction over the other plaintiffs' properly joined claims, as long as those claims arise
out of the same series of transactions or occurrences. See Gracey v. Janssen Pharm.,
Inc., No. 4:15-CV-407 CEJ, 2015 WL 2066242, at *3 (E.D. Mo. May 4, 2015). They
argue that the same series of transactions or occurrences—defendants' promotion,
marketing, and sale of AndroGel—gave rise to all plaintiffs' claims and took place, in
part, in Missouri, such that the court may "properly exercise personal jurisdiction over
defendants with respect to this cause of action as a whole." Id. See also Bradshaw v.
Mentor Worldwide, LLC, No. 4:15-CV-332 SNLJ, 2015 WL 3545192, at *2 (E.D. Mo.
June 4, 2015) (declining to dismiss out-of-state plaintiffs' claims against medical device
manufacturer for lack of personal jurisdiction where all claims arose "from the same or
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substantially related acts, which happened to take place in Missouri and in other states,
but which squarely subject[ed] [the defendant] to personal jurisdiction in Missouri").
According to plaintiffs, as well as the district courts in Gracey and Bradshaw upon
whom they rely, it is improper to analyze the connection between a defendant's contacts
within the forum state and the claims asserted on a plaintiff-by-plaintiff basis. Doing so,
they suggest, ignores the Supreme Court's instruction that a court's minimum contacts
analysis "properly focuses on 'the relationship among the defendant, the forum, and the
litigation.'" Keeton v. Hustler Magazine, Inc., 465 U.S. 770, 775 (1984) (quoting Shaffer
v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 204 (1977)). See also Walden v. Fiore, 134 S. Ct. 1115, 1126
(2014) ("[I]t is the defendant, not the plaintiff or third parties, who must create contacts
with the forum State.").
Nothing in the Supreme Court decisions plaintiffs cite, however, suggests that a
court may exercise jurisdiction over a plaintiff's claims against a defendant where those
claims are unrelated to the defendants' activities within the forum state. In Keeton, for
example, the Court ruled that a New Hampshire court could exercise jurisdiction over a
defendant magazine publisher based on the publisher's circulation of magazines
containing allegedly libelous content within New Hampshire. Though the plaintiff herself
had only limited contacts with New Hampshire, she had brought suit, in part, for
damages she suffered there, and the Court reasoned that in addition to protecting its
own citizens from libelous statements, New Hampshire had an interest in protecting
nonresident victims of libelous statements circulated within the state. See Keeton, 776–
77. There is no indication in Keeton that the plaintiff could have brought suit in New
Hampshire if, for example, the magazine circulated within the state contained only
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libelous statements related to other, unrelated plaintiffs. Similarly, nothing in Walden
indicates that a court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a claim against defendants
unrelated to their conduct within the forum state. The Court in Walden emphasized the
importance of considering the defendant's contacts with the forum state, as opposed to
the plaintiff's, in support of the proposition that a plaintiff "cannot be the only link between
the defendant and the forum." Walden, 134 S. Ct. at 1122. But the Court's opinion
does not suggest that a court need only analyze the sufficiency of the defendant's
contacts with the forum state in relation to one of the claims asserted in the litigation, and
the Court simply does not address a situation in which a defendants' contacts with the
forum are unrelated to the claims some of the plaintiffs assert.
To the extent Bernaix's claims "relate to" defendants' contacts within Missouri,
they do so only in the abstract or by analogy. Just as defendants allegedly sold and
made false representations about AndroGel in Missouri, giving rise to injuries there, so
too did defendants allegedly sell and make false representations about AndroGel in
Illinois and other states. But plaintiffs make no allegation of any real relationship
between Bernaix's claims and defendants' Missouri contacts; all of the factual allegations
necessary to establish his claims are based on defendants' conduct outside Missouri.
Their argument thus appears to be based on a kind of "pendent" or "supplemental"
theory of specific personal jurisdiction, under which a court could exercise personal
jurisdiction over multiple plaintiffs' claims that arise from the same transactions or
occurrences and involve some common issues of law or fact as long the court properly
has specific jurisdiction over one plaintiff's claims. The Court, however, respectfully
disagrees with plaintiffs, and with the district courts in Gracey and Bradshaw, that any
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such doctrine exists. See Seiferth v. Helicopteros Atuneros, Inc., 472 F.3d 266, 275 n.6
(5th Cir. 2006) (“There is no such thing as supplemental specific personal jurisdiction; if
separate claims are pled, specific personal jurisdiction must independently exist for each
claim and the existence of personal jurisdiction for one claim will not provide the basis for
another claim.”) (quoting 5B Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and
Procedure § 1351, at 229 n.30 (3d ed. 2004)). Other circuit courts, in addition to the
Fifth Circuit in Seiferth, have held that personal jurisdiction over the defendant must be
established as to each claim asserted. See, e.g., Remick v. Manfredy, 238 F.3d 248,
255 (3d Cir. 2001); Phillips Exeter Acad. v. Howard Phillips Fund, 196 F.3d 284, 289 (1st
Cir. 1999). Though these cases involved separate claims brought by the same plaintiff,
the Court sees no reason—and plaintiffs have provided none—why the principle
underlying those decisions would not also apply to claims brought by separate plaintiffs.
In addition, even if such a doctrine of pendent specific personal jurisdiction
existed, it is far from clear that plaintiffs' claims—which involve different consumers in
different states suffering different injuries after receiving prescriptions from different
doctors for a drug used for varying time periods—arise from the same transaction or
occurrence. See, e.g., Hill v. Eli Lilly & Co., No. 1:15-CV-00141-JMS, 2015 WL
5714647, at *7 (S.D. Ind. Sept. 29, 2015) (collecting cases and stating that "[t]he Court's
view that Plaintiffs' claims do not arise from a common transaction or occurrence is in
keeping with the consistent reluctance of federal courts to treat products liability claims
as arising from the same transaction or occurrence merely because they relate to the
same medicine or medical device.").
Under the theory plaintiffs propose, the alleged sale and promotion of AndroGel
13
within Missouri, which allegedly caused a Missouri plaintiff's injury, would subject
defendants to general personal jurisdiction in Missouri for claims brought by any plaintiff
who allegedly suffered injury by purchasing and using AndroGel anywhere in the
country. Such a result would be plainly contrary to "traditional notions of fair play and
substantial justice." Int'l Shoe, 326 U.S. at 316. See, e.g., Keeley v. Pfizer Inc., No.
4:15CV00583 ERW, 2015 WL 3999488, at *3 (E.D. Mo. July 1, 2015). In this case, such
a result would be particularly at odds with the rationale underlying the requirement that a
defendant have minimum contacts with the forum state. One purpose of that
requirement is to "protect[] the defendant against the burdens of litigating in a distant or
inconvenient forum." World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 292,
100 S. Ct. 559, 564 (1980). That purpose would be frustrated in this case if a Missouri
court were to have personal jurisdiction over Bernaix's claims. As defendants note,
because of the different factual circumstances surrounding the various plaintiffs' alleged
purchase and use of AndroGel, as well as the variance in their alleged injuries, plaintiffs'
claims are likely to be tried separately. Thus if a Missouri court asserted jurisdiction over
defendants for Bernaix's claims, defendants would be haled into Missouri to defend
against allegations that are unrelated to any activities they (or plaintiff) conducted within
the state. As defendants point out, the Missouri juries in Bernaix's case likely would not
even hear any evidence related to Missouri. It would thus be unfair and contrary to the
rationale underlying the minimum contacts doctrine to allow plaintiffs to use the Missouri
plaintiff's claims as a hook to reel defendants into a series of separate trials in a distant
and inconvenient forum to try issues unrelated to their conduct within the forum.
For the foregoing reasons, defendants' contacts in Missouri that give rise to
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Liggins' claims are inadequate to confer jurisdiction over defendants for Bernaix's claims.
Because dismissal of Bernaix's claims makes the parties completely diverse, the Court
retains subject matter jurisdiction and therefore denies plaintiffs' motion to remand.
Conclusion
For the reasons discussed above, the Court dismisses the claims of plaintiff
Charlie Bernaix for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Court also denies plaintiffs' motion
to remand. The Court declines at this time to rule on defendants' motion to dismiss
regarding the other plaintiffs' claims. The Court wishes to discuss with counsel how the
case should proceed ahead. The case is set for a telephone status conference on
March 1, 2016 at 12:45 p.m. Chicago time. Counsel should confer to determine who
should participate in the conference call; someone should volunteer to set it up; and they
are to advise the Court by February 29, 2016 regarding the call-in information.
________________________________
MATTHEW F. KENNELLY
United States District Judge
Date: February 18, 2016
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