News & Events

In a decision particularly important to the manufacturers of nationally sold products, the Second Department of New York’s Appellate Division reversed the lower court decision in In re OxyContin II.  The Court agreed with the position of defendants-appellants, which was supported by amicus the Product Liability Advisory Council, represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.  The trial court’s ruling would have permitted hundreds of personal injury actions filed by non-residents to be litigated in New York  on the ground that the case involved a “mass tort” and  there was no other single forum in which the non-class action claims of all residents and non-residents could be litigated.  The Appellate Division agreed that such considerations cannot trump the forum non conveniens doctrine, particularly where coordination in New York would prejudice the defense of the individual out-of-state residents’ cases.   

David Ichel, Libby McGarry, and Chantale Fiebig appeared on the brief.