As consumers, and connoisseurs, of personal jurisdiction precedent, we write today to consider the latest jurisdictional mess that has arisen, this time in talc litigation. Two courts, deciding the same jurisdictional issue on the same set of facts in the same week, have reached diametrically opposed decisions. The current contretemps concerns “Shimmer” – a minor
Missouri
Missouri Tort Reform: Abusive Lawsuits Won’t Keep Rolling Along

Missouri is central to America – geographically, culturally, and politically. Some of our greatest literature came from Missouri authors (Twain, Eliot, Angelou). Media figures as unifying as Walter Cronkite and as divisive as Rush Limbaugh at one time called Missouri home. American music wouldn’t be the same without tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins (listen to the…
PMA Preemption Win That Checks All the Boxes

Did you ever read something and think – I couldn’t have said it better myself. Sometimes we read opinions that give us just that feeling. A decision that ticks all of the boxes and leaves us wondering why everybody doesn’t see how easy it is to reach the right conclusion. Brooks v. Mentor Worldwide, LLC…
It’s Only a Minute Order, But Still It Bears Watching

This appeared on September 3, 2019, on the Missouri Supreme Court’s list of “Writs and Other Original Proceedings”:
SC98009 State ex rel. Monsanto Company, Relator, vs. The Honorable Michael K. Mullen, Respondent.
Petition for writ of prohibition sustained. Preliminary writ ordered to issue returnable to Court en banc within fifteen days.
(Emphasis…
Missouri Amends Venue Provisions To Prevent Forum Shopping

We’ve posted before about Missouri’s wretched venue rules that had allowed litigation tourists to flock to the plaintiffs’ favored St. Louis City venue in mass tort (and other) actions by joining dozens of non-residents with a single resident plaintiff. In particular, earlier this year we hailed a Missouri Supreme Court decision, State ex rel. Johnson …
Fraudulent Joinder and Misjoinder Arguments Prevail in Missouri

Sometimes we find it simply best to start with the facts. The facts of Graham v. Mentor World Wide LLC, 2019 WL 3253185 (E.D. MO Jul. 19, 2019) are:
- In 2000, plaintiff underwent plastic surgery including breast implants.
- Between December 2017 and February 2018, tests showed plaintiff was experiencing silicone leakage from her breast
…
E.D. Missouri Dismisses Non-Missouri Mesh Claims for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction

You cannot get too much of a good thing, so let’s celebrate another good jurisdiction case out of Missouri. (Prior examples can be found here and here, among others.) In Timpone v. Ethicon, 2019 WL 2525780 (E.D. Mo. June 19, 2019), the plaintiff lawyers cobbled together 99 plaintiffs (a pure CAFA evasion) to…
Another Blow Against “Loose And Spurious” Personal Jurisdiction In Missouri

Bexis is going to have to give up saying that nothing good ever comes out of Missouri, because for the second time in just a few months we are reporting on a well-reasoned opinion from Missouri that comes to the right result for the right reasons. In Fullerton v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., No.…
Game-Changing Opinion on Venue from Missouri Supreme Court

Bexis is known to say that nothing good ever comes out of Missouri, but the Missouri Supreme Court has proven him wrong. We have long made exceptions to Bexis’ proclamation for Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, and Kansas City barbeque, and we can now add to that list the Missouri Supreme Court’s new opinion in State…
Another Missouri Talc Verdict Is Wiped Out On Personal Jurisdiction

Even if Bexis and McConnell like to sport overalls and tool around in souped-up tractors, we are not farmers. We have grown enough heirloom tomatoes, ghost peppers, rainbow chard, purple basil, and other suburban garden staples, however, to know that “you reap what you sow” is usually true, assuming the levels of hydration, sunshine, and…