Imported Chinese Litigation Returned To Sender

We thank Eamon Joyce at Sidley for alerting us to an interesting forum non conveniens decision out of the Fourth Circuit: Tang v. Syntura International, Inc., No. 10-1487, slip op. (4th Cir. Sept. 6, 2011). We’ve had our own litigation interest in this subject for some time, as Dechert has been involved for more years than some of us care to count in the Blood Products multidistrict litigation (mostly) in Illinois. That’s produced a number of favorable forum non rulings. See Chang v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 599 F.3d 728 (7th Cir. 2010) (Taiwanese cases sent back to Taiwan); Abad v. Bayer Corp., 563 F.3d 663 (7th Cir. 2009) (Argentinian cases sent back to Argentina); In re Factor VIII or IX Concentrate Blood Products Litigation, 484 F.3d 951 (7th Cir. 2007) (British cases sent back to the UK); In re Factor VIII or IX Concentrate Blood Products Liability Litigation, 2008 WL 4866431 (N.D. Ill. June 4, 2008) (Israeli case sent back to Israel); In re Factor VIII or IX Concentrate Blood Products Liability Litigation, 408 F. Supp.2d 569 (N.D. Ill. 2006) (Italian and German cases sent back to there respective countries), aff’d on somewhat other grounds, 484 F.3d 951 (7th Cir. 2007) (only the Brits appealed); Doe v. Hyland Therapeutics Division, 807 F. Supp. 1117 (S.D.N.Y. 1992) & Dowling v. Hyland Therapeutics Division, 767 F. Supp. 57 (S.D.N.Y. 1991) (both Irish cases sent back to Ireland).

See also Dowling v. Richardson-Merrell, Inc., 727 F.2d 608 (6th Cir. 1984) (DES – back to UK); Lin v. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., 2011 WL 3566855 (N.D. Ohio Aug. 12, 2011) (oral contraceptive – back to Taiwan); Lee v. Johnson & Johnson, 2011 WL 3566859 (N.D. Ohio Aug. 12, 2011) (same); In re Fosamax Products Liability Litigation, 2009 WL 3398930 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 21, 2009) (Fosamax – back to England); Miller v. Boston Scientific Corp., 380 F. Supp.2d 443 (D.N.J. 2005) (stent – back to Israel); Ontario Ministry of Health v. Shiley, Inc., 858 F. Supp. 1426 (C.D. Cal. 1994) (heart valves – back to Canada); Ledingham v. Parke-Davis Division, 628 F. Supp. 1447 (E.D.N.Y. 1986) (dilantin – back to Canada); Stangvik v. Shiley Inc., 819 P.2d 14 (Cal. 1991) (heart valves – back to Scandanavia); In re Vioxx Litigation, 928 A.2d 935 (N.J. Super. App. Div. 2007) (Vioxx – back to the UK).