Deppa v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc.

In a consolidated product liability case, plaintiffs filed a lawsuit alleging that defendants failed to warn of the risks associated with their infant formulas and that this caused serious injury to the plaintiffs’ premature babies. Defendants filed an intrastate forum non conveniens motion seeking to transfer the plaintiffs’ complaints from Cook County to the counties and states where the injured infants were born. The circuit court denied the forum non conveniens motions and defendants pursued an interlocutory appeal. The appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part, finding that it did not abuse its discretion in denying the intrastate forum non conviens motions, but that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying the interstate motions explaining, in part, that it would be patently unfair to burden Cook County residents with jury duty and the expenses associated with complex trials where the plaintiffs’ home states had a predominant connection to the litigation. (C.A. WALKER and TAILOR, concurring)