County of Santa Clara v. Astra USA, Inc.

ORDER (1) DENYING MOTION FOR REMAND OR DISMISSAL, (2) GRANTING REQUESTS FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE AND (3) DENYING MOTION FOR RULE 19(a) JOINDER

INTRODUCTION

Asserting four state-law claims, plaintiff County of Santa Clara moves for joinder of additional defendants and, based on such joinder, for remand to state court for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. As an alternative to remand, it moves for dismissal due to lack of jurisdiction. Santa Clara and the defendants, all pharmaceutical manufacturers, separately have requested judicial notice of certain facts. The requests for judicial notice are unopposed and are Granted. The motion for remand or dismissal is Denied; this Court has federal-question subject-matter jurisdic tion. The Rule 19(a) motion for joinder is Denied.

STATEMENT

Defendants make pharmaceuticals, including common medicines such as Turns, Excederin and the antibiotic, Zithromax (Compl.lffl 19-21)! They provide these medications to distributors who sell them to public hospitals and health-care clinics (Br.2). As required by state law, Santa Clara County pays the cost of drugs given to many indigent and other patients at such medical facilities, including the Santa…