The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A city still on the legal sidelines
Many have sued Purdue, but not its own home
STAMFORD — Six of the state’s 10 largest cities, and hundreds of others across the country, have sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. So has Connecticut’s attorney general and more than 30 of his counterparts.
The company’s hometown stands apart.
While Purdue grapples with more than 1,000 lawsuits tied to allegations that it fueled the national opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of its pain drugs, Stamford Mayor David Martin has so far kept his city on the legal sidelines. He said the strategy neither reflects an indifference to the accusations nor a fear of standing up to the firm. But the lack of action has fomented suspicions that his administration is unable or unwilling to take a leading role in tackling the country’s largest public health crisis.
“There are numerous lawsuits that will ensure the public-policy issues are addressed,” Martin said in an interview this week. “I don’t think us joining of any of those lawsuits now is going to change the outcome. I want to make a difference — not just put our name on a lawsuit.”
Purdue declined to comment on the city’s legal position. It has denied the lawsuits’ allegations.
Watching, but not litigating
When Martin was elected to his first term in November 2013, few states and cities had sued Purdue.
The number of complaints would rocket in the next five years. An explosion in opioid fatalities prompted local and state governments to turn to the courts to find redress for the human and financial toll of the crisis.
In 2018, 1,017 people died of drug overdoses in Connecticut, according to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
About 75 percent of those deaths involved the synthetic opioid fentanyl, while heroin contributed to about 40 percent of the fatalities. Users of heroin and illicit types of fentanyl often first become addicted to prescribed pain drugs before moving on to cheaper and more accessible street alternatives.
Statistics on the OCME’s website do not show which, if any, prescriptionopioid brands such as OxyContin that are involved in fatal overdoses.
Waterbury led the Connecticut-based legal challenges against Purdue, filing a lawsuit in August 2017. New Haven followed about two months later, and New Britain sued a few weeks after that. In January 2018, a group of 18 towns and cities —including Bridgeport, Fairfield and Bristol — submitted a complaint. Norwalk and Danbury, joined by Ansonia and Derby, followed five months later.
In total, about threedozen cities and towns in the state have taken legal action against the company. Some of the complaints have also named as defendants other major opioid makers such as Endo, Janssen and Teva.
“Opioid addiction has had a profound impact on our community in terms of medical-care costs, hospital costs and, of course, the tragedies that you see,” Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said in a recent interview. “We want to be reimbursed, and we want dollars there for education and dollars for enforcement of people who are abusing the system.”
As a state, Connecticut sued last December — one of the final acts of thenAttorney General George Jepsen’s administration. The case continues under successor William Tong.
Connecticut and Massachusetts comprise the first two states to not only sue Purdue as a company, but also its owners, who are members of the Sackler family.
More than 30 other states’ attorneys general have also filed complaints.
Martin said that he is “deeply troubled” by the allegations against Purdue outlined in the Connecticut and Massachusetts cases. But he does not want his city to enter the legal fray — at least not yet.
“If nobody was taking up a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, given what has been discovered, I would take a far more aggressive approach,” Martin said. “But lots of people are taking up lawsuits. It might make a difference for us (to sue) later. But right now, I’ll rely on the attorney general of Connecticut to lead the state’s effort.”
Fourteen people died from overdoses of drugs taken in Stamford in 2018, according to the Chief Medical Examiner. All but two of those deaths involved opioids.
Pushback
So far, Martin has not faced much public pushback from other local political leaders for not suing.
Messages left this week for Democrat Matthew Quinones, deputy mayor and president of the city’s Board of Representatives; Democrat Rodney Pratt, the BOR’s majority leader; and Republican Mary Fedeli, the BOR’s minority leader, were not returned.
Similarly, Martin’s opponents in the 2017 municipal election, in which he won a second term, did not publicly challenge him about the lack of litigation.
But others, outside the local government, argue that Martin is kowtowing to Purdue. The company is headquartered in the downtown, at 201 Tresser Blvd. — its home since 2000, following a relocation from Norwalk.
Purdue employs about 250 in Stamford, according to the most recent count provided by the company. It laid off several hundred last year, as it disbanded its controversial sale force.
“The mayor’s position assumes that Stamford will receive compensation whether or not it sues; that is by no means certain,” said Paul Hanly, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a consolidated group of about 1,500 municipal lawsuits against Purdue and several other pharmaceutical companies in federal court in Cleveland. “It appears the mayor is trying to appease Purdue, which is not in the best interests of the Stamford residents.”
Meanwhile, Martin’s decision to not sue has angered activists such as Fernando Luis Alvarez. The Stamford art gallery owner was arrested last June for his role in a protest involving the installation of an 800-pound spoon outside Purdue’s headquarters.
“How can Stamford compete for innovation, jobs, grants ... when we fail to lead in these fundamental events rooted in our city?” Alvarez asked. “What message does this send to the country? That we’re beholden to a few billionaires, instead of leading the country.”
The Connecticut Democratic Party recently disavowed tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in recent years from Sackler family members, whose combined net worth has been estimated at $13 billion. No Sacklers gave to Martin’s 2017 re-election campaign, according to records on file in the Stamford city and town clerk’s office.
“I can understand how people would speculate that we’re not taking action because Purdue Pharma is located in our city,” Martin said. “I’m mindful they’re here, and it makes me more deliberate about our decisions. But they’re not going to get a free pass because they’re headquartered here.”
Time to reconsider
The clock has not run out on a potential Stamford lawsuit. Pending litigation against Purdue could drag on for many more months, even years — before a major settlement is hammered out, if such an agreement is ever reached.
In January, a state Superior Court judge dismissed a group of lawsuits that included Bridgeport, New Britain, New Haven and Waterbury. The plaintiffs had not shown the defendants’ culpability, said Judge Thomas Moukwasher.
“A credible suggestion on measuring causation might have given this court some pause,” Moukawsher wrote in his decision. “But during the long hours, spread over two days spaced amply apart, during which this motion was argued in court, it became apparent that the plaintiffs filed these lawsuits without first thinking of a way to sort out the causation conundrum.”
Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury subsequently filed challenges to Moukawsher’s decision in the state’s Appellate Court. His ruling did not cover the Danbury-Norwalk complaint, which is also on his docket.
“The Stamford mayor is undoubtedly aware that these lawsuits were dismissed and are now being appealed,” said Robert Bird, a professor of business law at the University of Connecticut. “Even with the appeals, the dismissal places those lawsuits in question because at least one judge thinks they’re not meritorious.”
Martin cited the dismissal as an example of the challenges that could await a Stamford lawsuit. But he has not ruled out filing a complaint.
“Absolutely, we are reserving that right for the future,” Martin said. “But we would want to make certain that we were going to pursue a legal strategy that would give us the maximum benefit for the least cost.”
That explanation does not sit well with Alvarez. Following his protest last year, he is leading a “Spoon Movement” to raise awareness about the opioid crisis.
“Not ruling it out, to me, is just as bad as inaction,” Alvarez said. “This is not a time to be so non-committal. People’s lives are at stake.”