The Missouri Supreme Court has dealt another blow to the efforts of Massachusetts-based Fresenius Medical Care to keep patients injured and killed by the company’s now-recalled Granuflo® dialysis concentrate and system from filing cases in Missouri state court to recover for their harms and losses. On Friday, the Missouri Supreme Court denied an application for a court order to move the cases out of the 22nd Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri. The Supreme Court’s denial of Fresenius’ request comes on the heels of a similar denial of the same request made to the Appellate Court for the Eastern District of Missouri just weeks before.
These on-going efforts by Fresenius have included an earlier removal from state court to federal court that the Honorable Carol A. Jackson ordered remanded back to the 22nd Judicial Circuit last year as well as two separate venue challenges in state court, both of which were denied by the Honorable David L. Dowd. Fresenius’ unsuccessful attempts to avoid facing victims in the Missouri state court now requires the company to face approximately 400 cases for those injured or killed by Fresenius’ now-recalled Granuflo®.
Following nearly 1000 patients at its own dialysis centers suffering cardiac arrest in 2010, Fresenius warned its own doctors in November 2011 of the cardiac arrest risk, but did not warn any of its customers’ dialysis centers. In fact this information was concealed until 2012 when a company memo was leaked to the FDA, causing the Class I recall of GranuFlo® and NaturalLyte® in March 2012.
For more information please contact one of the experienced product liability attorneys at Holland Groves: info@hollandtriallawyers.com or 314-241-8111.