In a sharp rebuke to the federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said a pretrial ruling by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster was a “clear abuse of discretion.”

The panel overturned Polster’s decision in advance of a trial—scheduled to take place Nov. 9, 2020 with a dozen pharmacies as defendants—to allow plaintiffs to add new claims more than a year after a deadline to do so.