In Re Needles Cases

Drinker, Biddle & Reath and Charles F. Preuss, Alan J. Lazarus, Thomas W. Pulliam, Jr. and Michelle A. Childers, San Francisco, for Real Parties in Interest.

ELIA, Acting P.J.

This petition for a writ of mandamus arises from a coordinated action against the real parties in interest, SmithKline Beecham Corporation and SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories, Inc. (collectively, SmithKline). The only issue raised in the petition is whether a party in a coordinated action who successfully challenges a summary judgment on appeal may thereafter exercise a peremptory challenge of the judge presiding over the coordinated proceedings. We conclude that such challenges are permitted under Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6, subdivision (a)(2), notwithstanding the time limits specified in California Rules of Court, rule 3.516.

After one of SmithKline's phlebotomists was terminated for reusing needles to draw blood from patients, petitioner Jane Doe 8015 was found to have acquired HIV and petitioner Gerald Orzoff may have acquired and cleared Hepatitis C. In April 2000, petitioners sued SmithKline, which owned and operated the laboratory where their blood had been drawn, for…