1 United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit 3 4 August Term, 2023 5 6 Argued: November 20, 2023 7 Decided: July 23, 2024 8 9 Docket Nos. 23-877(L), 23-878(Con), 23-879(Con), 23-880(Con), 23-881(Con), 23- 10 882(Con), 23-883(Con), 23-884(Con), 23-885(Con) 11 12 BETH BACHER, REPRESENTATIVE FOR PAUL BACHER (DECEASED), 13 JEROME JAY BERKOWITZ, MARY CASSIDY, JOHN CORWIN, ARMANDO 14 RAMOS, RAFAEL ROLON, RODERICK SULLIVAN, THOMAS VAZZANO, 15 ANNE YOST, PLAINTIFF REPRESENTATIVE FOR RICHARD YOST 16 (DECEASED), et al., 17 18 Plaintiffs-Appellees, 19 20 v. 21 22 BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., BOEHRINGER 23 INGELHEIM CORPORATION, BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM USA 24 CORPORATION, GLAXOSMITHKLINE LLC, GLAXOSMITHKLINE 25 HOLDINGS (AMERICAS), INC., PFIZER, INC., SANOFI-AVENTIS U.S. LLC, 26 SANOFI US SERVICES INC., 27 28 Defendants-Appellants. 29 _____________________________________ 30 Before: KEARSE, CALABRESI, and NATHAN, Circuit Judges. 31 32 Defendants-Appellants appeal from an order of the United States District 33 Court for the District of Connecticut (Meyer, J.) remanding these nine actions to 34 state court. Defendants removed these actions from state court to federal court, 35 arguing that a motion to consolidate filed in state court by Plaintiffs proposed a 1 23-877 Bacher v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., et al. 1 joint trial sufficient to confer federal subject-matter jurisdiction under the Class 2 Action Fairness Act’s “mass action” provision. Plaintiffs disagree, asserting that 3 their motion proposes consolidation only for pretrial purposes. We agree with the 4 Plaintiffs, finding the text of their motion ambiguous in isolation but clear in 5 context, and therefore AFFIRM. 6 7 Judge Kearse dissents in a separate opinion. 8 9 _____________________________________ 10 11 DANIEL S. PARISER, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 12 (Anand Agneshwar, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, 13 New York, NY; Joseph W. Martini, Spears Manning & 14 Martini LLC, Southport, CT; Patrick M. Fahey, Jamie A. 15 Welsh, Shipman & Goodwin LLP, Hartford, CT; Lindsey 16 B. Cohan, Dechert LLP, Austin, TX; Robert Reginald 17 Simpson, Lauren R. Greenspoon, Shook, Hardy & Bacon 18 LLP, Hartford, CT; James I. Glasser, James O. Craven, 19 Wiggin and Dana LLP, New Haven, CT, on the brief), 20 Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellants. 21 22 JOHN A. BRUEGGER, Parafinczuk Wolf, P.A. (Robert A. 23 Izard, Craig A. Raabe, Izard, Kindall & Raabe, LLP, West 24 Hartford, CT, on the brief), Boca Raton, FL for Plaintiffs- 25 Appellees. 26 27 _____________________________________ 28

2 23-877 Bacher v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., et al. 1 CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

2 Defendants-Appellants appeal from an order of the United States District

3 Court for the District of Connecticut (Meyer, J.) remanding these nine actions to

4 state court.

5