Judge Finds Plaintiffs' Asserting MedMal Claims Misjoined

JACKSON, Miss. - The claims of six plaintiffs asserting medical malpractice against the physicians who prescribed them OxyContin were remanded to state court after a federal judge found they were misjoined with the remaining 19 plaintiffs' claims against Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboratories. Pittman, et al., v. The Purdue Pharma Co., et al. No. 03-CV-152 (S.D. Miss.).

U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour ruled in his March 12 opinion that the claims of the six plaintiffs did not satisfy Mississippi's permissive joinder requirements.

The suit involving 25 plaintiffs was filed in the Circuit Court for Smith County (Miss.). Each …