Roughly a year ago, we published a post about the trial court decision in Independence County v. Pfizer. There, the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed claims brought by several Arkansas counties against companies that manufactured over-the-counter cold and cough medicines containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. The counties sought to hold the drug companies liable because the
Another state rejects public nuisance in the product liability context – although only after the defendants were forced through “the longest trial in [state] history.”
What did the Rhode Island Supreme Court hold in State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Association, Inc., 951 A.2d 428 (R.I. 2008). Here’s a synopsis:
(1) The court finally
The defense wins.
Here’s a link to the Rhode Island Supreme Court website, which links in turn to the decision.
We haven’t yet read this, and it’s not clear we’ll be able to speak even after we do.
Yo! What’s goin’ on over in Joisey?
It wasn’t too long ago that New Jersey was one of the last places you’d want to be in if you were a drug or device manufacturer – litigating product liability claims, that is. To some extent that was ironic, because quite a few of our drug (not
One of the ways we feed this blog is doing what comes naturally to us lawyers – reading recent cases – and hoping that something inspires us. Sometimes that works. Sometimes that doesn’t. This week it worked too well. We’ve seen several decisions that bring back memories of stuff we’ve had to deal with over
A recent opinion crossed our desk: Independence County v. Pfizer, Inc., ___ F. Supp.2d ___, 2008 WL 398980 (E.D. Ark. Feb. 11, 2008). The opinion has generated a bit of interest because of the unusual nature of the claim – which is, we suppose, to be expected where, as here, a local government has
We were impressed by the number of links and other favorable attention that followed our post here about barring municipalities from hiring outside contingent fee counsel in nuisance actions brought against product manufacturers. Naturally we’re inclined to go back to the same well – even if (thankfully) municipalities have yet to get into the habit