Watson Laboratories, Inc. v. Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc.

ORDER GRANTING WATSON’S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN PART AND GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART RHÓNE-POU-LENC’S FOUR MOTIONS FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY ADJUDICATION

INTRODUCTION

This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (“Plaintiffs Motion”) and Defendants’ four separate Motions for Partial Summary Adjudication (“Defendants’ Motions”). This dispute between pharmaceutical companies arises out of Defendants’ alleged breach of its contractual obligations to supply Plaintiff with the hypertension drug Dilacor XR® and to not compete with Plaintiff in that drug market.

Plaintiffs omnibus, sprawling Motion seeks to establish that (1) Defendants breached the two contracts at issue; (2) Defendants may not rely on a force maj-eure affirmative defense; (3) Defendants’ Third, Fifth and Eighth Affirmative Defenses (unclean hands, waiver and mitigation) to liability for breach of their supply obligations fail; (4) Defendants’ Sixth and Ninth Affirmative Defenses (laches and good faith competition) are no defense to breach of the non-compete provisions; (5) the U.S.-based defendant parent company is liable for breaching the contracts signed by…