Plaintiff Permitted to Amend Ill. Hip Implant Complaint to Add Sales Agent and Distributor

CHICAGO – An Illinois federal court has remanded a hip implant lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiff could amend his suit to include a sales agent and distributor as a defendant, thereby destroying diversity of citizenship.

In the March 11 order, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that the inclusion of the sales agent and distributor did not constitute fraudulent joinder since the plaintiff had alleged that the company’s involvement went “far beyond the ordinary sales activities most typical of the distributorship relationship.”

Harvey Barnett brought the lawsuit, contending that his hip implant failed. Barnett originally …