In yet another case that required the Pennsylvania Superior Court to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California, a state appellate panel has ruled that claims over a woman’s death allegedly caused by a contaminated endoscope can stay in Pennsylvania despite the fact that the scope manufacturer is based in Japan and the death occurred in North Carolina.

In a published April 10 opinion in Vaughan v. Olympus America, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court unanimously reversed a Philadelphia trial judge’s rulings that sustained defendant Olympus Medical System Corp.’s (OMSC) preliminary objections seeking dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction and dismissed claims against three remaining defendants—Olympus America (OAI), Olympus Corporation of the Americas (OCA) and Custom Ultrasonics (Custom)—for forum non conveniens.