Magistrate Says Complaint Fails to Provide Facts Supporting Claims against Physicians

LAREDO, Texas - A federal magistrate judge recommended denying a woman's motion to remand her Vioxx wrongful death suit on the ground that her complaint failed to support allegations against three Texas healthcare defendants. Patricia Benavides v. Merck & Co. Inc., et al. No. 03-CV-134 (S.D. Texas, Laredo Div.).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Adriana Arce-Flores wrote in the Feb. 23 report and recommendation that Patricia Benavides' complaint did not allege any specific actions taken by the three defendants, and only mentioned the defendants by name when stating jurisdictional facts.

Benavides claimed that Vioxx caused her mother, Lucia Gutierrez, to suffer a …