Opioid suits can’t be based on nuisance law in Ohio, top state court rules in $650M win for pharmacies

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Opioid fits cannot be primarily based on nuisance regulation in Ohio, high state courtroom guidelines in $650M win for pharmacies

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 12, 2024, 3:23 pm CST

A choice by the Ohio Supreme Court docket on the state’s product-liability regulation is sweet information for 3 nationwide pharmaceutical chains ordered to pay greater than $650 million for contributing to the opioid epidemic.

The state supreme courtroom dominated Dec. 10 that the Ohio Product Legal responsibility Act eradicated all common-law nuisance claims in reference to the sale of merchandise, Court docket Information Ohio reviews. The state supreme courtroom dominated after the sixth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals at Cincinnati requested for a ruling on the influence of the state regulation as amended.

The sixth Circuit licensed the query to the Ohio Supreme Court docket in an enchantment of a $650.6 million judgment in opposition to CVS, Walmart and Walgreens. The lawsuit was amongst a number of bellwether instances used to check claims and defenses chosen from about 3,000 opioid fits consolidated within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of Ohio.

Two Ohio counties had contended that the damages awarded have been for abatement of the nuisance, fairly than for compensatory damages. Because of this, the regulation didn’t bar their claims, they argued.

The Ohio Supreme Court docket dominated, nevertheless, that the kind of reduction requested is immaterial beneath the regulation as written. The state supreme courtroom additionally rejected the counties’ declare that the nuisance go well with didn’t meet the definition of a product-liability declare as a result of there have been no allegations of a product defect.

The three drug firms praised the ruling, Bloomberg Regulation reviews. Walgreens stated in a press release the choice “permits us to place this litigation behind us so we will proceed specializing in the well being and well-being of our sufferers, clients and crew members in northern Ohio and throughout the nation.”

Peter H. Weinberger represented the plaintiffs—Lake County and Trumbull County in Ohio. He instructed Bloomberg Regulation that the choice “could have a devastating influence on communities and their capacity to police company misconduct.”

Nationwide, he stated, opioid settlements with drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies complete almost $60 billion. The Ohio Supreme Court docket’s determination “undermines the very authorized foundation that drove this outcome,” Weinberger instructed Bloomberg Regulation.

The Ohio Supreme Court docket is the second high state courtroom to rule that public-nuisance legal guidelines can’t be utilized in opioid fits.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court docket held in November 2021 that Johnson & Johnson’s opioid advertising and marketing didn’t create a public nuisance as a result of it involved the sale of a lawful product. The choice overturned a $465 million verdict.