A New York federal judge has ruled that the removal to federal court of a deceptive practices class action lawsuit brought by New York state employees was appropriate. Allowing the PBM defendant to aggregate the group of New York state employees claims for damages was proper as a method to meet the "amount in controversy requirement" for diversity jurisdiction. The case, James M. Wagner, et al. v. Express Scripts, Inc., is now in the United States federal district court for Southern District of New York and asserts claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violations of New York's Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The employee plaintiffs contend that Express Scripts generates profits by employing deceptive practices resulting in increased health care costs, inflated insurance premiums and prescription drug rates as well as inflated co-payments for prescriptions that exceed the actual cost of the prescription. Inflated insurance premiums and employee co-payments are caused by Express Scripts' failure to pass on compensation received from major pharmaceutical companies.