A federal appeals court axed a $650 million judgment and corresponding injunction against CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart stemming from a lawsuit filed by two Ohio counties in 2018.
A federal jury in Cleveland concluded in November 2021 that an oversupply of addictive pain pills and the diversion of those opioids to the black market created a public nuisance in the counties and that the pharmacies helped cause it, as Reuters reported.
In 2022, a Cleveland federal judge ordered CVS, Walmart and Walgreens to pay a combined $650.9 million to help the two counties address, or abate, the harms caused by the epidemic.
The companies appealed, and, in December, Ohio's Supreme Court ruled in favor of CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, stating that the companies could not be held liable under a state nuisance law.
The state's top court held on a 5-2 vote that a state law barred Lake and Trumbull counties' claims that pharmacy chains' dispensing of addictive pain medications created a public nuisance that the companies should be forced to remediate, Reuters reported.
Justice Joseph Deters, writing for the majority, said the court recognized that the deadly epidemic had touched the lives of people throughout Ohio and "undoubtedly has far-reaching consequences for their communities and for the state as a whole," the Associated Press reported in December.
"Creating a solution to this crisis out of whole cloth is, however, beyond this court's authority," Deters wrote.
In an expected decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a two-page order (PDF) Friday that vacated the 2022 order imposed by a Cleveland federal judge in favor of the two counties.
Lake County was to receive $306 million over 15 years. Trumbull County was to receive $344 million over the same period. Nearly $87 million was to be paid immediately to cover the first two years of payments.
A Walgreens spokesperson said in a statement, "We are pleased with the Court’s ruling, which allows us to put this litigation behind us so we can continue focusing on the health and wellbeing of our patients, customers, and team members in northern Ohio and across the country."
Most opioid lawsuit cases have been resolved through large nationwide settlements, which now total about $46 billion, but the Ohio counties were among those that opted out of those deals and pressed forward with their own trials or settlements.
Following the Ohio Supreme Court ruling in December, Peter H. Weinberger, an attorney with Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP representing the counties, said the decision “will have a devastating impact on communities and their ability to police corporate misconduct.” While nationwide settlements with drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies total nearly $60 billion, the ruling “undermines the very legal basis that drove this result,” he said, as reported by Bloomberg Law.
Weinberger said communities would continue to fight through “other legal avenues.”