In some states (we're looking at you, California) it is
frightfully hard to win on fraudulent concealment removal where the
plaintiff has joined an in-state distributor of a drug or medical
device. In other states, defendants have more of a shot.
Today's case, Harris v. Zimmer Holdings, Inc., 2019
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71025 (S.D.N.Y. April 26, 2019), is one of the
latter. The plaintiff was an Ohio citizen who claimed personal
injury from a hip implant. He filed suit in Ohio state court
alleging Ohio state causes of action against diverse manufacturer
defendants and against Ohio (therefore non-diverse) distributor
defendants. The presence of the latter supplied the ostensible
reason why the action could not be removed to federal court. Still,
the defendants removed, arguing that the Ohio defendants had been
fraudulently joined and that, therefore, federal diversity
jurisdiction existed. The fraudulent joinder argument rested on the
notion that the claims against the Ohio
