Case Abstract
Defending Aetna, Inc., Lowey Dannenberg obtained dismissal of a nationwide class action lawsuit filed originally in Alabama state court and removed by Aetna to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA). The lawsuit claimed that Aetna had underpaid all U.S. pharmacies for prescription drugs dispensed to its insureds.
Client
Aetna, Inc.
Case Name
Main Drug, Inc. v. Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Aetna, Inc., 475 F.3d 1228 (11th Cir. 2007); Main Drug v. Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Aetna, Inc., 455 F. Supp. 2d 1323 (M.D. Ala. 2006) and 455 F. Supp. 2d 1317 (M.D. Ala. 2005).
Result
Dismissal of class action lawsuit.
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Case Details
Richard W. Cohen and Scott V. Papp defended Aetna.
Plaintiff claimed that Aetna underpaid retail pharmacies by using outdated Average Wholesale Prices to calculate the amounts it paid for prescription drugs dispensed to Aetna's insureds.
The complaint was filed five days before the enactment of CAFA. Two precedental decisions, in 2005 and 2006, by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, sustained Aetna's removal of the case to federal court under CAFA on the grounds that, notwithstanding that the complaint was filed pre-CAFA, the action was not "commenced" under Alabama law until after CAFA's enactment. In January 2007, we won dismissal of plaintiff's appeal from the CAFA decisions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Upon remand to the district court, we moved successfully to reinstate Aetna's motion to dismiss the action, and the action was dismissed less than three weeks after the appeal was dismissed. In numerous similar class action cases filed by the same counsel for retail pharmacies against other pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) in the Alabama courts, the plaintiffs have successfully resisted removal and the prosecution of such cases continues. One such case recently settled on behalf of a nationwide class, at substantial cost to the PBM.
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