Judge: Sales Representatives Were Fraudulently Joined, Despite Negligence Claim

BEAUMONT, Texas - A federal judge has ruled that sales representatives named as defendants in a Texas Bextra case were not properly joined because the plaintiff failed to allege that the sales reps knowingly misrepresented that the drug was safe. Boudreaux v. Pfizer, Inc., et al., No. 05-369 (E.D. Texas).

Judge Howell Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas said July 15 that because plaintiff Dorothy H. Boudreaux merely alleged that the sales representatives were negligent in their affirmations about the safety of Bextra, there is no reasonable basis to predict that Boudreaux can recover …