A West Virginia couple was denied their motion for remand to state court by a federal judge in Philadelphia who is handling the multidistrict litigation for DuPont’s herbicide called Imprelis because the pair had fraudulently joined a defendant in order to defeat diversity jurisdiction.
U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania rejected the Bordases’ claim that their inclusion of Brett Conner, their “lawn care professional” who had recommended they hire a company to apply Imprelis to their property, among the defendants in the action would prevent diversity jurisdiction. Instead, Pratter held that Conner was fraudulently joined and the case is rightly in her court.
