City of Lakeport v. Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation
- Robert Illman
- 1:20-cv-04007
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In City of Lakeport v. Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation, the Judicial Panel transferred the case for pretrial proceedings; Judge Illman is identified in the case information.
City of Lakeport and the other parties in the listed action; the case was transferred from the Northern District of California to the Northern District of Ohio for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings.
What happened
City of Lakeport and other parties brought an action against Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation and other parties. The Judicial Panel said the case shared factual questions with other prescription-opiate cases already being handled together in Ohio.
The panel issued a conditional order transferring the case to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The case was assigned there to Judge Dan A. Polster for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings.
Judge Robert Illman is identified in the case information, but the transfer order was issued by the Judicial Panel. The transfer would become effective when filed in the Ohio court, subject to a seven-day period for opposition; the order did not decide the parties’ underlying claims.
The detailed version
- City of Lakeport v. Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation · No. 1:20-cv-04007
- Robert Illman
- July 8, 2020
Background
This order concerns a case listed as a tag-along action in the national prescription-opiate litigation. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation had previously transferred related civil actions to the Northern District of Ohio under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. The panel stated that the Lakeport action appeared to involve factual questions common to those earlier-transferred cases.
Ruling
The panel issued Conditional Transfer Order 163, transferring the action to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio under § 1407 and assigning it, with that court’s consent, to Judge Dan A. Polster. The order was conditional: it would not become effective until filed with the Ohio court’s clerk. Transmittal was stayed for seven days after entry, and any party’s timely notice of opposition would continue the stay until the panel issued a further order.
Effect
The order addressed only where and how the case would proceed during pretrial proceedings. It did not resolve the parties’ underlying claims or defenses. The supplied case information identifies Robert Illman as the judge, while the transfer order itself identifies the Judicial Panel and assigns the transferred action to Judge Polster.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.