Federal Appeals Court Returns Zantac Cancer Lawsuits Back To Connecticut State Court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has determined that nine lawsuits filed against the manufacturers of Zantac, which involve claims brought by more than 850 people who developed cancer after using the recalled heartburn drug, should be remanded back to Connecticut state court for continued handling, determining that the claims are not subject to federal jurisdiction.

The cases represent only a small fraction the Zantac cancer lawsuits currently being pursued against various different pharmaceutical companies, each raising similar allegations that consumers were not adequately warned about the risk that the active ingredient ranitidine is inherently unstable and produces high levels of the chemical byproduct N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which is a potent human carcinogen.

A massive Zantac recall was issued in 2020, removing all versions of brand name and generic ranitidine from the market, and drug makers continue to face claims being pursued by former users who developed bladder cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer and other injuries after taking the medication to treat heartburn or acid reflux.

The Zantac litigation was initially focused in the federal court system, where claims brought in U.S. District Courts nationwide were centralized before U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. However, before the first case ever reached trial, Judge Rosenberg issued a controversial ruling excluding all of the plaintiffs’ expert witness testimony, which was needed to establish that Zantac causes cancer.

Judge Rosenberg’s decision was based on an interpretation of the federal rules regarding the admissibility of expert testimony, resulting in the dismissal of all federal Zantac lawsuits. However, the ruling had no impact on tens of thousands of claims now being pursued in various different state court systems, including Illinois, Delaware and Connecticut, where different standards for the admissibility of expert witness testimony.

Zantac Cancer Lawsuit Remand Ruling Upheld

In the aftermath of the ruling, plaintiffs called for a group of nine Zantac cancer lawsuits, representing more than 850 plaintiffs, to be remanded from the federal court back to the state court in Connecticut, where they were originally filed. Plaintiffs argued that their claims were improperly removed to the federal court system, and should be adjudicated at the state level.

Defendants pushed back, maintaining that the lawsuits should be litigated in the federal court system based on the consolidated nature of the claims and provisions of The Class Action Fairness Act, which expands federal subject-matter jurisdiction to “mass actions” in which damages are sought by 100 or more individuals seeking a joint trial.

However, on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion (PDF) supporting plaintiffs’ remand of the claims to state court. The appeals court noted that plaintiffs had structured their lawsuits in a way that was clearly, and legally, designed to avoid the need for the cases to be adjudicated at the federal level.

“In this case, which involves nine virtually identical cases filed in Connecticut state court, Plaintiffs sought to do just this. They went to great lengths to evade various triggers of federal subject-matter jurisdiction,” the appeals court noted, in a 2-1 ruling. “Time and again, Plaintiffs walked the edge of one jurisdictional line or another, and each time they sought to avoid missteps that might allow the cases to be brought into federal court.”

They determined that a ruling in federal court which remanded the claims back to state court was the correct ruling, and affirmed the decision.

July 2024 Zantac Lawsuit Update

While all federal Zantac lawsuits have been dismissed, and are currently pending on appeal, various drug makers have taken differing approaches to defending remaining cases pending at the state court level.

Pfizer and Sanofi recently announced a Zantac settlement agreements to resolve thousands of claims involving their role in the sale of the medication, while GlaxoSmith Kline and Boehringer Ingelheim have continued to defend the litigation, only reaching one-off agreements to resolve individual claims on the eve of trial. However, one case against those drug makers recently went to trial in Illinois, resulting in a defense verdict.

In Delaware state court, where the majority of remaining claims are currently pending, the judge presiding over the litigation recently cleared 75,000 Zantac lawsuits to move forward, after finding that plaintiffs’ expert witness testimony was sufficiently reliable for a jury to consider the claims.