FRESNO (LN) — A federal judge in the Eastern District of California on Wednesday granted plaintiffs’ motion to remand a wrongful-death lawsuit to state court, rejecting Boston Scientific’s attempt to sever local healthcare providers to establish diversity jurisdiction.
The case centers on the December 2025 death of Remedios Ramos, who died five days after undergoing surgery to install a watchman device at Fresno Community Hospital and Medical Center. The surgery was performed by Dr. Thampi John.
Plaintiffs Misael Ramos, Gerald Ramos, and Michael Ramos filed the suit in Fresno County Superior Court, alleging that the California healthcare defendants negligently performed the procedure and that Boston Scientific’s device was defectively manufactured.
Boston Scientific removed the case to federal court in February 2026, arguing that the plaintiffs fraudulently misjoined the California defendants to destroy complete diversity. The company asserted that the claims against the doctors and hospital were unrelated to the claims against the Delaware- and Massachusetts-incorporated manufacturer.
U.S. District Judge E.G.C. found that the joinder was proper under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20 because the claims arose transaction and shared common questions of fact, such as how the device was used and whether it was defective.
The court distinguished the case from the Supreme Court’s decision in Temple v. Synthes Corp., noting that Temple addressed whether a plaintiff was required to join a doctor, not whether a plaintiff could elect to sue a doctor and a manufacturer together when alleging joint negligence.
Boston Scientific also failed to establish fraudulent misjoinder, the court found. The judge noted that the Ninth Circuit has not adopted the fraudulent misjoinder doctrine, and several Eastern District of California courts have declined to apply it.
Because the California healthcare defendants were properly joined, their citizenship must be considered. With both plaintiffs and defendants including California citizens, complete diversity was lacking.
The court also denied the plaintiffs’ motion for attorney’s fees related to the removal proceedings. The judge ruled that while the removal was improper, the legal status of fraudulent misjoinder in the Ninth Circuit was not clearly foreclosed, meaning Boston Scientific had an objectively reasonable basis for seeking removal.
The case is now back in Fresno County Superior Court.