Infant Formula MDL Judge Remands Calif. Cases for Lack of Diversity

CHICAGO — The judge overseeing the preterm infant formula MDL docket has remanded six cases filed in California state court in which each plaintiff, a California citizen, has asserted at least one claim against an in-state hospital, ruling that defendant Abbott Laboratories failed to establish fraudulent joinder.

In an Aug. 29 order, Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found the plaintiffs have a viable theory of negligence against the California hospitals —that their conduct relating to the use of cow’s-milk-based products for feeding premature babies was itself negligent.

“Abbott has …