Ethicon Media Monitoring 12/13/2018

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1. Pa. Appeals Court To Rethink Jurisdiction In NYC Siren Suit

   Dec 12, 2018 | Law 360

   By Matt Fair
   
   
   A Pennsylvania appeals court has ordered an en banc rehearing after a three-judge panel ruled in September that a siren manufacturer's registration to do business in the state allowed the Philadelphia County court to preside over hearing-loss claims brought by a group of New York City firefighters.

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. Pa. Appeals Court To Rethink Jurisdiction In NYC Siren Suit

   Dec 12, 2018 | Law 360

   By Matt Fair

   A Pennsylvania appeals court has ordered an en banc rehearing after a three-judge panel ruled in September that a siren manufacturer's registration to do business in the state allowed the Philadelphia County court to preside over hearing-loss claims brought by a group of New York City firefighters.
   
   The state’s Superior Court threw out the panel’s decision on Friday and said that the entire bench would consider the issue, one in a series of cases over jurisdiction for out-of-state plaintiffs that Pennsylvania appeals courts have considered in the last year, anew.
   
   The court did not comment on the case in accepting it for reargument, and attorneys for the parties did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Wednesday.
   
   The Superior Court ruled 2-to-1 in September that the Illinois-based Federal Signal Corp. could face claims in Pennsylvania because the company had consented to personal jurisdiction in the state by virtue of its registration to do business there in 1969.
   
   The decision followed another ruling by the Superior Court in June in which a three-judge panel agreed that Webb-Benjamin LLC, a Pittsburgh-area company that arranges home furniture sales, could sue the Connecticut-based International Rug Group LLC in Pennsylvania based on the defendant’s registration to do business in the state.
   
   The appeals court has also allowed out-of-state plaintiffs to bring claims in Philadelphia against a New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson subsidiary over allegedly defective pelvic mesh products.
   
   In the case against Federal Signal, a group of firefighters alleged they suffered irreparable hearing loss after being exposed to sirens during careers with the New York Fire Department.
   
   A trial judge had initially tossed the case after siding with preliminary objections that the Pennsylvania state courts did not have jurisdiction over the claims.
   
   While the Superior Court ultimately upended that conclusion in September, the ruling included a blistering dissent from Judge Mary Jane Bowes in which she questioned the rationale — in both the instant case and in the Webb-Benjamin case — for granting jurisdiction based on an out-of-state company’s registration to do business in the state.
   
   “I believe that the present case underscores the conceptual flaw in perpetuating a legal fiction that blindly equates the administrative act of registration as a foreign corporation with express consent to general personal jurisdiction,” she said. “Stated plainly, I believe that the … jurisprudence underpinning the Webb-Benjamin court’s decision is flawed.”
   
   While the Superior Court shot down a petition for en banc rehearing in the Webb-Benjamin case, it will now have a chance to consider the issue again in the case against Federal Signal.
   
   The firefighters are represented by Shawn Michael Sassaman and Thomas J. Joyce III of Marc J. Bern & Partners LLP.
   
   Federal Signal Corp. is represented by Wayne A. Graver and Michael F. McKeon of Lavin O’Neil Cedrone & DiSipio and James David Duffy of Thompson Coburn LLP.
   
   The cases are Kenneth Murray et al., Andrew Burns et al., Miguel Moreno et al., Michael Feldman et al., Richard Barbarise et al., Roosevelt Adams et al. and Richard Adams et al. v. American LaFrance LLC et al., case numbers 2105 EDA 2016, 2016 EDA 2016, 2107 EDA 2016, 2108 EDA 2016, 2109 EDA 2016, 2110 EDA 2016 and 2111 EDA 2016, in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

   https://www.law360.com/articles/1110708/pa-appeals-court-to-rethink-jurisdiction-in-nyc-siren-suit
   

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