Court Opinion

ID: 9653981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:00:44.890137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:04.273762
License: Public Domain

ALTENBERND, Judge,
Specially concurring.
I fully concur in this opinion. This court’s record in this nonfinal appeal consists of a very limited appendix. However, it should be emphasized that Bausch & Lomb was a defendant in a large number of similar personal injury actions around the country. About the same time that the Baines retained Jaffe & Hough, the federal personal injury cases were subjected to multidistrict litigation assigned to the district court in South Carolina. See In re Bausch & Lomb Inc. Contact Lens Solution Prods. Liab. Litig., 444 F.Supp.2d 1336 (J.P.M.L.2006). There are indications in our record that Mrs. Baine received medical treatment for this injury in Pennsylvania. Thus, nothing in our record suggests that Jaffe & Hough ever contemplated that its representation of the Baines would require litigation in Florida.
Moreover, although the Baines filed this action initially in Polk County, the record suggests that it was removed to federal court and transferred to the multidistrict litigation. If so, I question whether it was appropriate to file such a “summary proceeding” in a case that had long ago been removed to federal court.