US appeals court overturns West Virginia landmark opioid lawsuit decision
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a landmark decision in West Virginia that rejected attempts by an opioid-ravaged county to be compensated by U.S. pharmaceutical distributors for the influx of prescription painkillers into the area.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that a lower court judge erred in saying West Virginia’s public nuisance law did not apply to the case involving opioid distribution.
“West Virginia law permits public nuisance abatement to include a requirement that the defendant pay money to fund efforts to eliminate the public nuisance,” the 4th Circuit wrote. “West Virginia has long called mitigation an equitable solution.”
The decision sends the case back to U.S. District Court in Charleston for “further proceedings consistent with the principles expressed in this opinion.”
Thousands of state and local governments have filed lawsuits over the cost of opioids. The lawsuits were largely based on the companies’ claims. created a public nuisance by failing to track where powerful prescriptions lead. Many of the cases were settled as part of a series of nationwide settlements worth more than $50 billion. However, there was no decisive trend in the results of those tried.
In July 2022, U.S. District Judge David Faber ruled in favor It is one of three major U.S. pharmaceutical distributors accused by Cabell County and the city of Huntington of causing a public health crisis by distributing 81 million pills in the county over eight years. AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. He was also accused of ignoring signs that Cabell County was being ravaged by addiction.
Faber said the West Virginia Supreme Court has applied the public nuisance law only in the context of conduct that interferes with public property or resources. Expanding the law to include the marketing and sale of opioids is “inconsistent with history and traditional notions of disorder,” he said.
Last year the federal appeals court sent a certified question His decision filed with the state Supreme Court reads: “Under the common law of West Virginia, may conditions caused by the distribution of a controlled substance constitute a public nuisance and, if so, what are the elements of a claim for such a public nuisance?”
State judges refused to answer. A 3-2 opinion in May sent the case back to federal court.
“We hold that West Virginia’s highest court will not exclude as a matter of law any common law claim for public nuisance resulting from the distribution of a controlled substance,” the 4th Circuit wrote Tuesday. “We therefore conclude that the district court erred in holding that the public nuisance claim based on opioid distribution was per se legally insufficient under West Virginia law.”
During arguments on the question, which was approved before the state Supreme Court earlier this year, the companies’ attorney, Steve Ruby, called the plaintiffs’ arguments to extend the public nuisance law to opioid manufacturers “radical.” If allowed, he said, it would “create an avalanche of activist lawsuits.”
The appeals court previously noted that the West Virginia Class Action Panel, which works to resolve complex cases in state court, concluded that in many cases opioid distribution “may form the basis of a public nuisance claim under West Virginia common law.”
Faber also said in the 2022 decision that the plaintiffs presented no evidence that the defendants distributed controlled substances to any entity that did not have proper registration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or the state Board of Pharmacy. He said the defendants also had questionable monitoring systems as required by the Controlled Substances Act.
But the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found Tuesday that the lower court “misunderstood distributors’ duties” under the Controlled Substances Act.
The plaintiffs had requested the expenditure of more than $2.5 billion. Opioid use prevention, treatment, and education More than 15 years.
In 2021, Cabell County, home to 93,000 Ohio River residents, had 1,059 emergency responses to suspected overdoses; this number was significantly higher than in each of the previous three years, with at least 162 deaths.
