Pack v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc. ( 2023 )

1 Christopher R. Rodriguez (SBN 212274) Andrew D. Bluth (SBN 232387) 2 SINGLETON SCHREIBER, LLP 1414 K Street, Suite 470 3 Sacramento, California 95814 Tel: (619) 333-7479 4 crodriguez@singletonschreiber.com abluth@singletonschreiber.com 5 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 6 Robyn E. Bladow (SBN 205189) KIRKLAND & ELLIS LLP 7 555 S. Flower Street Los Angeles, CA 90071 8 Tel: (213) 680-8400 robyn.bladow@kirkland.com 9 Attorneys for GlaxoSmithKline 10 Consumer Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC 11 (additional counsel on signature page) 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 14 KENNETH LEVI PACK, an individual, on ) Case No. 2:23-cv-01965-AC behalf of himself and all others similarly ) 15 situated; MIN JI JUNG, an individual, on behalf ) STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] 16 of herself and all others similarly situated, ) ORDER TO SUBSTITUTE PARTY ) NAME, AMEND CAPTION, AND TO Plaintiffs, ) 17 vs. ) ENLARGE TIME FOR RESPONSIVE ) PLEADINGS PENDING MDL 18 Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc., ) DETERMINATION a New Jersey corporation; GlaxoSmithKline ) 19 LLC, a Delaware corporation; Reckitt Benckiser ) Judge: Hon. Allison Claire 20 LLC, a Delaware corporation; Bayer Healthcare ) Courtroom: 26 LLC, a Delaware limited liability corporation; ) Sanofi- Aventis U.S. LLC, a Delaware limited ) 21 liability corporation; The Procter & Gamble ) Company, an Ohio corporation; Church & ) 22 Dwight Co., Inc., a Delaware corporation; ) Walmart Inc., a Delaware corporation; Target ) 23 Corporation, a Minnesota corporation; CVS ) Pharmacy, Inc., a Delaware corporation; ) 24 Walgreen Co., an Illinois corporation; ) Albertsons Companies Inc., a Delaware ) 25 corporation; Rite Aid Corporation, a Delaware ) corporation; Amazon.com, Inc., a Delaware ) 26 corporation; and DOES 1-20, ) ) 27 Defendants. ) 1 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs Kenneth Levi Pack and Min Ji Jung (“Plaintiffs”) filed the above- 2 captioned action against Defendants Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc., 3 GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Reckitt Benckiser LLC, Bayer Healthcare LLC, Sanofi- Aventis U.S. LLC, 4 The Procter & Gamble Company, Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Walmart Inc., Target Corporation, CVS 5 Pharmacy, Inc., Walgreen Co., Albertsons Companies Inc., Rite Aid Corporation, Amazon.com, Inc., 6 and Does 1-20 (“Defendants”) on September 12, 2023 (the “Complaint”), 7 WHEREAS, GlaxoSmithKline LLC was incorrectly named as a defendant in this action; 8 WHEREAS, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC now d/b/a Haleon 9 (“GSK Consumer Healthcare”) is the proper defendant regarding certain products alleged in the 10 Complaint; 11 WHEREAS, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc was incorrectly named as a 12 defendant in this action; 13 WHEREAS, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. is the proper defendant regarding certain 14 products alleged in the Complaint; 15 WHEREAS, Reckitt Benckiser LLC was incorrectly named as a defendant in this action; 16 WHEREAS, RB Health (US) LLC is the proper defendant regarding certain products alleged 17 in the Complaint; 18 WHEREAS, a petition has been filed before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (the 19 “JPML”) to consolidate this case with other civil actions now pending inside and outside of this 20 District into a single multidistrict litigation (the “MDL Petition”); 21 WHEREAS, the MDL Petition has identified at least thirteen actions it seeks to consolidate in 22 MDL No. 3089, and at least twenty-seven additional actions are pending across the country that may 23 also be deemed related actions (together with any other actions that are the subject of the MDL 24 Petition, the “Related Actions”); 25 WHEREAS, the MDL Petition has been docketed before the JPML as In re: Oral 26 Phenylephrine Litigation, MDL No. 3089, responses to the MDL Petition are due on or before October 27 11, 2023, with a reply due on or before October 18, 2023; 1 WHEREAS, this Court has the inherent power to grant a stay, or to enlarge deadlines, 2 especially in circumstances such as here, where doing so would promote judicial economy and avoid 3 prejudice to the parties, see, e.g., Landis v. North Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); Sprint Commc’ns 4 Co. L.P. v. Pac. Bell Tel. Co., 2014 WL 7239474, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Dec. 16, 2014) (staying action 5 pending JPML decision); JBR, Inc. v. Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., 2014 WL 1767701, at *3 (E.D. 6 Cal. May 2, 2014) (same); 7 WHEREAS, absent relief from currently pending deadlines, the Court and the parties would 8 face responsive pleading deadlines and, in light of the possibility that there will be an MDL 9 consolidating the Related Actions for the purpose of pretrial proceedings, an extension of those 10 deadlines is prudent to avoid duplication of pretrial efforts by the parties, any waste of judicial 11 resources, and the risk of conflicting rulings; 12 WHEREAS the parties have met and conferred and agree that responsive pleading deadlines 13 should be stayed pending resolution of the MDL Petition; 14 THEREFORE, THE PARTIES HEREBY STIPULATE, AGREE AND 15 RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT: 16 1. Defendant “GlaxoSmithKline LLC” is dismissed without prejudice and will be replaced by 17 defendant “GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC” and the caption in 18 this action shall be amended to reflect that substitution; 19 2. Defendant “Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.” is dismissed without prejudice 20 and will be replaced by defendant “Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.” and the caption in this 21 action shall be amended to reflect that substitution; 22 3. Defendant “Reckitt Benckiser LLC” is dismissed without prejudice and will be replaced by 23 defendant “RB Health (US) LLC” and the caption in this action shall be amended to reflect 24 that substitution; 25 4. This Court stays any served Defendant’s deadline to answer, move, or otherwise plead in 26 response to the Complaint, or any subsequently filed amended complaint, until further order 27 of this Court or any Court to which the JPML assigns the Related Actions; 1 5. Because this case has been submitted to the JPML as a related case, the Court will receive 2 notice from the JPML if an MDL is formed. If the JPML denies the motion to form an MDL, 3 the Parties will meet and confer within 14 days of the JPML’s ruling and prepare a joint status 4 report for the Court; 5 6. The parties’ entry into this stipulation does not constitute a waiver of any jurisdictional 6 defenses that may be available under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including 7 personal jurisdiction, a waiver of any defenses under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil 8 Procedure, or a waiver of any other statutory or common law defenses that may be available 9 to any Defendant in this action, the Related Actions, or both. Defendants expressly reserve 10 their rights to raise any such defenses in response to any operative or amended complaint that 11 may be filed relating to this action. 12 7. The parties’ entry into this stipulation does not prevent Plaintiffs from further amending their 13 complaint, if they deem it necessary to do so. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 DATED: October 2, 2023 Respectfully submitted, 2 /s/ Christopher R. Rodriguez Christopher R. Rodriguez (SBN 212274) 3 Andrew D. Bluth (SBN 232387) 4 SINGLETON SCHREIBER, LLP 1414 K Street, Suite 470 5 Sacramento, California 95814 Tel: (619) 333-7479 6 crodriguez@singletonschreiber.com abluth@singletonschreiber.com 7 8 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 9 10 DATED: October 2, 2023 Respectfully submitted, 11 /s/ Amy S. Heath /s/ Robyn E. Bladow Amy S. Heath (SBN 312516) Robyn E. Bladow (SBN 205189) 12 COVINGTON & BURLING LLP KIRKLAND & ELLIS LLP Salesforce Tower 555 S. Flower Street 13 415 Mission Street, Suite 5400 Los Angeles, CA 90071 San Francisco, CA 94105-2533 Tel: (213) 680-8400 14 Telephone: (415) 591-6000 robyn.bladow@kirkland.com aheath@cov.com 15 Attorneys for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Attorney for Defendant The Procter & Gamble Healthcare Holdings (US) LLC (incorrectly 16 Company sued as “GlaxoSmithKline LLC”) 17 /s/ Amy J. Laurendeau /s/ Vassi Iliadis Amy J. Laurendeau (SBN 198321) Vassi Iliadis (Bar No. 296382) 18 O’MELVENY & MYERS LLP HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP 610 Newport Center Drive, 17th Fl. 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1400 19 Newport Beach, CA 92660 Los Angeles, California 90067 Telephone: (949) 823-6900 Telephone: (310) 785-4600 20 Facsimile: (949) 823-6994 Facsimile: (310) 785-4601 alaurendeau@omm.com Vassi.iliadis@hoganlovells.com 21 Hannah Y. Chanoine (SBN 4380622) Lauren S. Colton (Pro Hac Forthcoming) 22 (Pro Hac Forthcoming) HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP O’MELVENY & MYERS LLP 100 International Drive, Suite 2000 23 Times Square Tower Baltimore, MD 21202 7 Times Square Telephone: (410) 659-2733 24 New York, NY 10036 Facsimile: (410) 659-2701 Tel: (212) 326-2000 Lauren.colton@hoganlovells.com 25 Facsimile: (212) 326-2061 Attorneys for Defendant RB Health (US) 26 Attorneys for Johnson & Johnson Consumer LLC (incorrectly sued as “Reckitt Inc. (incorrectly sued as “Johnson & Benckiser LLC”) 27 Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.”) 1 /s/ Chrisopher M. Young /s/ Kevin §. Asfour Christopher M. Young (Bar No. 163319) 2 Kevin S. Asfour (#228993) christopher.young@dlapiper.com kevin.asfour@klgates.com DLA PIPER LLP (US) 3 K&L GATES LLP 4365 Executive Drive, Suite 1100 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., 8th Floor San Diego, CA 92121 4 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Telephone: +1 619 699 4748 Telephone: +1 310 552 5000 Facsimile: +1 619 764 6748 5 Facsimile: +1 310 558 5001 Attorneys for Bayer HealthCare LLC 6 Attorney for Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. 7 8 /s/ Amanda L. Groves 9 Amanda L Groves WINSTON & STRAWN LLP 10 333 S. Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90071 11 (213) 615-1851 Email: agroves@winston.com 12 Jeff Wilkerson 13 WINSTON & STRAWN LLP 300 S. Tryon Street, 16th Floor 14 Charlotte, NC 28202 (704) 350-7714 15 Email: jwilkerson@winston.com 16 Attorneys for Defendant Albertsons 7 Companies Inc, 18 || IT IS SO ORDERED. 19 20 || DATED: October 3, 2023 □ A/ 21 oe ALLISON CLAIRE 22 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 23 24 25 26 27 28 STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER TO SUBSTITUTE PARTY NAME, AMEND