NuvaRing MDL: Plaintiffs’ Motions Victory

NuvaRing Victory for Plaintiffs

Earlier this month, plaintiffs won a nice victory in the NuvaRing MDL litigation, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Judge Sippel denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss a master consolidated complaint (that defendants themselves requested Plaintiff’s file, and plaintiffs consented). The judge appropriately held that the master complaint was simply an administrative tool to place all of the plaintiffs’ claims in one document, but that it could not be dismissed where defendants had already responded to the individual plaintiffs’ complaints (there are about 150 of them). According to procedural rules, a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss cannot follow an individual answer. Defendants tried to be tricky by getting a global complaint filed (for convenience purposes), then trying to dismiss all the cases. Tricky, but the judge saw through it.