The judge overseeing the pelvic mesh mass tort in Philadelphia has agreed to reconsider the state court's jurisdiction over 91 cases pending in the venue.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Arnold New recently granted defendant Johnson & Johnson's motion that sought to revisit the state court's jurisdiction over numerous cases in the mass tort program in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's game-changing decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California. New's decision, made public last week, is the first and so far only bid to have Bristol-Myers applied to a Philadelphia mass tort program.

In its June ruling in Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Supreme Court made clear that out-of-state plaintiffs can't sue companies in states where the defendants aren't considered to be “at home,” or haven't conducted business directly linked to the claimed injury. The ruling was widely seen as a game-changing decision that promised to reshape the geography of mass tort litigation across the country.