DISCLAIMER:  The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
                        as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.

091205P.pdf   01/06/2010  Sandra Kirkland  v.  Wyeth
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  09-1205
                          and No:  09-1250
                          and No:  09-1373
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock   
   [PUBLISHED] [Bright, Author, with Murphy and Riley, Circuit Judge]
Civil case - Products liability. After considering Fed. R. Civ. P. 20 joinder standards, the court concludes that the manufacturer defendants have not met their burden of establishing that plaintiffs' claims are egregiously misjoined, as there are common questions of law and fact and the claims have real connections in that they relate to similar drugs and injuries and the manufacturers' knowledge of the risks of the drugs; further there is no evidence that plaintiffs joined their claims to avoid diversity jurisdiction; as a result, the district court erred in denying plaintiffs' motions to remand to state court, and the matter is remanded to the district court with instructions to remand all of the cases to the Minnesota state court for lack of jurisdiction; because the district court lacked jurisdiction to act, its orders granting the manufacturers' motions to dismiss the duplicative orders is also vacated.