Products Liability Law Reporter

A federal district court held that a change of venue was not warranted in a products liability case against two smokeless tobacco manufacturers.

Gus Hoefling was a strength and fitness coach for the Philadelphia Eagles football team and the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. He became addicted to Skoal spit tobacco and Red Man Chewing Tobacco. Several years after he quit using smokeless tobacco, he was diagnosed as having head and neck cancer. He and his wife sued Pinkerton Tobacco Co., the maker of Red Man; and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. (USSTC), Skoal’s manufacturer and distributor. The lawsuit, which was filed in Pennsylvania state court, alleged strict liability and other claims. USSTC removed the case to federal court in Pennsylvania on the basis of diversity and later moved to transfer the case to the Middle District of Florida.

Denying the motion, the district court considered whether a transfer to the Middle District of Florida, a jurisdiction in which the case might have been brought, was in the interests of justice. The court found that the plaintiffs’ choice of forum was to be given preference and that their claims arose in Pennsylvania, where Hoefling first used the defendants’ products and the longest period place of his continual use. The court rejected the defense argument that the plaintiffs’ permanent residency in Florida merited the transfer, acknowledging the plaintiffs’ arguments that a transfer would render the parties’ discovery moot and necessitate a new schedule and trial date. Moreover, the court said, the defense had not provided any evidence supporting the claim that it will be unable to procure the testimony of Hoefling’s physicians or other fact witnesses were the case to remain in Pennsylvania. It is the plaintiffs’ responsibility to provide appropriate medical testimony, the court said.

Finally, the court found that significant events giving rise to the plaintiffs’ claims occurred in Pennsylvania. Consequently, the court held that transfer of the case to Florida was not warranted.

Citation: Hoefling v. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., 2020 WL 7769735 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 30, 2020).

Plaintiff counsel: Debora A. O’Neill and Jack Meyerson, both of Philadelphia; and AAJ member Jay M. Howanitz and Robert F. Spohrer, both of Jacksonville, Fla.