Benzene Parties Exchange Briefing on Court Order Allowing Amendment

NEW ORLEANS –– Several defendants involved in a benzene lawsuit have filed briefs supporting their motion for review of a magistrate judge’s decision to allow the plaintiffs to amend their complaint, maintaining that the court has already concluded that the plaintiffs had fraudulently joined one of the defendants.

In a reply brief filed on June 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the defendants said that the court had already ruled that in-state company Jafri’s Faith Inc. was fraudulently joined and the magistrate judge’s order allowing the plaintiffs to amend treats the company as …