Mississippi High Court Rejects Defendants' Plans for MDL Silica Cases

JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Supreme Court has rejected attempts by defendants to establish a plan for handling the thousands of silica claims remanded from the federal MDL before the cases were returned to state court. In Re: Remanded Federal MDL Silica Products Liability Litigation, No. 2005-M-01356 (Miss. Sup. Ct.).

In orders released Sept. 29, the state's highest court denied the defendants' petitions for extraordinary relief, one of which sought outright dismissal of the claims and another aimed at creating a statewide silica MDL, ruling that they were not properly before the court. In doing so, the court also granted …