Thompson, et al. v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al., No. 13-3005 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff and her kids filed a wrongful death action in state court against R.J. Reynolds and others after her husband died from throat cancer. Defendants removed to federal court, arguing that both of the nonmanufacturers had been fraudulently joined. The district court then granted defendants' motion to dismiss because the family's claims were barred by res judicata. The court concluded that the district court did not err in finding fraudulent joinder, denying plaintiff's motion for remand, and then dismissing the nonmanufacturers from the case. The court also concluded that the "one recovery" rule of Missouri Revised Statutes 537.080 barred recovery against defendants in plaintiff's earlier suit for a wrongful death caused by the same conduct. Therefore, the district court was correct in dismissing the claims against the manufacturing defendants under the more demanding of the dismissal standards. As a result of the prior judgment, the husband no longer had a viable claim against the cigarette manufacturers at the time of his death, and his family is barred from bringing such a claim now. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - Products liability. Under Missouri's law of "one recovery," where plaintiff's decedent brought a state court products liability action against the tobacco company defendants and recovered a judgment for his injuries, he no longer had viable cause of action against the tobacco companies at the time of his death, and is family is barred from bringing such a claim now; there was no basis for a claim against the Missouri retail defendants and the district court did not err in finding they had been fraudulently joined.
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