Defense Counsel in Ethicon Transvaginal Mesh MDL Sanctioned for Repeated Removal of Cases

CHARLESTON, W. Va. — A West Virginia federal judge has sanctioned defense counsel in an Ethicon transvaginal mesh case for continuing to remove cases to federal court despite repeated rulings that the cases belong in state court.

In a May 13 order, Judge Joseph R. Goodwin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found that defense counsel’s actions were calculated “to keep these cases out of state court for as long as possible and to waste the court's time and the plaintiff's resources.”

The cases are among the more than 55,000 similar mesh claims assigned …