A federal judge in Cleveland on Wednesday awarded $650 million in damages to two Ohio counties that won a landmark lawsuit against national drugstore chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, alleging that the way they dispensed opioids to customers caused serious damage to communities.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said in the ruling that the money will be used to alleviate an ongoing opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties outside of Cleveland. County attorneys had put the price tag at $1 billion for the damage done to each county.
Lake County will receive $306 million over 15 years. Trumbull County will receive $444 million over the same period. Polster ordered the companies to pay nearly $87 million to cover the first two years.
In his ruling, Polster admonished the three companies, saying they “have thrown away the opportunity to present a meaningful plan to reduce the inconvenience.”
“Looking for deep pockets”?
Walmart issued a statement saying that county attorneys “sued Walmart in pursuit of deep pockets, and this ruling follows a trial that was designed to favor the plaintiffs’ attorneys and was riddled with notable legal and factual errors . We will appeal.”
A Walgreens spokesman also said the company would appeal.
“The facts and the law did not support the jury’s verdict last fall, and they do not support the court’s decision now,” said spokesman Fraser Engerman. “The court committed significant legal errors in allowing the case to go to a jury on a flawed legal theory inconsistent with Ohio law and compounded those errors in reaching its decision on damages.”
CVS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Today’s news means we will soon have the long-awaited resources needed to extend aid to adequately address the damage caused by this devastating epidemic,” Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda said in a statement.
Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck said in a statement, “Today marks the beginning of a new day in our fight to end the opioid epidemic.”
The jury found against the drugstore chains
a jury a ruling was returned in November in favor of the counties after a six-week trial. Polster then decided how much the counties should receive from the three pharmacies. He heard testimony in May to determine how much damages the counties should receive.
CVS is based in Rhode Island, Walgreens in Illinois and Walmart in Arkansas.
The counties convinced the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication in their communities.
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It was the first time pharmacies completed a lawsuit to defend themselves against a drug crisis that has killed half a million Americans since 1999.
Lawyers for the pharmacy chains maintained that they had policies in place to stem the flow of pills when their pharmacists had concerns and would notify authorities about suspicious orders from doctors. They also said it was doctors who controlled how many pills were prescribed for legitimate medical needs, not their pharmacies.
The drugstore chains said after the trial that they would appeal the jury’s verdict.
Two chains, Rite Aid and Giant Eagle, settled the lawsuits with the counties before trial. The amounts they paid have not been made public.
Mark Lanier, the counties’ attorney, said during the trial that the pharmacies were trying to blame everyone but themselves.
The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social service agencies and law enforcement in the blue-collar corner of Ohio east of Cleveland, leaving behind heartbroken families and babies born to addicted mothers, he said Lanier to the jurors.
80 million tablets
Between 2012 and 2016, approximately 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone, equivalent to 400 for every resident. In Lake County, about 61 million pills were distributed during that period.
The increase in the number of doctors prescribing pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone came as medical groups began to recognize that patients have a right to be treated for pain, said Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens , at the opening of the trial.
The problem, he said, was “pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into writing too many pills.”
Counties said pharmacies should be the last line of defense to keep pills from getting into the wrong hands.
The trial before Polster was part of a larger constellation of about 3,000 federal opioid lawsuits consolidated under his watch. Other cases are moving forward in state courts.
Kevin Roy, director of public policy at Shatterproof, an organization that advocates for solutions to addiction, said in November that the verdict could lead pharmacies to follow the path of major distribution companies and some drug manufacturers that have reached national settlements of opioid cases worth billions. So far, no pharmacy has reached a national agreement.
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