Seventh Circuit Confirms District Court Doesn’t Have Jurisdiction

On June 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided the case of John Crane, Inc., v. Shein Law Center, LTD and Benjamin Shein, et al., and affirmed the lower court’s ruling in favor of the defendants. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that the defendants were engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the plaintiff, a company that has manufactured products containing asbestos, and has been sued many times. In this case, the defendants filed lawsuits against the plaintiff in California, Pennsylvania and Texas, but the plaintiff alleged that the defendant law firm abused the discovery process regarding their clients’ exposure to asbestos from other manufacturers to “extort larger recoveries.” While the Court of Appeals acknowledges these claims are serious, it found that the District Court had no jurisdiction over the defendants, and this lawsuit must be dismissed.