The plaintiffs brought a motion to certify a class action against the manufacturers of the antidepressant Celexa, alleging it is a teratogen that causes congenital malformations.
The plaintiffs proposed common issues regarding general causation (whether Celexa is or may be teratogenic) and duty to warn.
The court dismissed the certification motion, finding that the proposed common issues failed to satisfy the commonality requirement under s. 5(1)(c) of the Class Proceedings Act, as they would not advance the litigation without individual trials for each specific congenital malformation.
The court also found that a class proceeding was not the preferable procedure due to the overwhelming number of complex individual issues.
