Judge Rules Power Companies Are Not Fraudulently Joined, Remands Case to State Court

BALTIMORE - A federal judge has ruled that two Maryland-based power companies whose alleged negligence resulted in a boy's exposure to mercury were not fraudulently joined to his parents' suit against the manufacturers of vaccines containing thimerosal. Michael Skevofilax, et al., v. Aventis Pasteur Inc., et al., No. AMD 03-2024 (D. Md.).

In an order and opinion remanding the case to Maryland's Circuit Court for Baltimore City, U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis' stated in a Sept. 2 decision that the parents' claims against Baltimore Gas & Electric, Co., and Constellation Energy Group, Inc., did not justify the application of …