Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corporation Retiree Medical Benefits Trust v. Walgreen Co.

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing on pleadings plaintiff's complaint alleging that defendant-drug company committed fraud by systematically taking prescriptions that were written on cheap forms of two popular drugs and illegally filling said prescriptions with expensive forms of said drugs, where plaintiffs failed to satisfy enhanced pleading requirements under Rule 9(b) by alleging adequate grounds for its suspicion of fraud. Plaintiff asserted only handful of examples of alleged improper substitution out of alleged nationwide practice of improper substitution of drugs, and plaintiffs otherwise failed to provide firsthand facts or data to make its suspicions about defendant's conduct plausible. Ct. also rejected plaintiff's claim that fair notice pleading requirements set forth in Rule 8(a) applied to instant case.