Expedited filings ordered in opioids lawsuit
Citing daily Oklahoma opioid overdose deaths, attorneys representing the state Wednesday passionately implored an Oklahoma City federal judge to reverse an earlier ruling.
“Nothing less than the safety, health and wellbeing of the citizens of Oklahoma hangs in the balance,” attorneys for the state said in a new court filing.
U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange acted quickly Wednesday — giving pharmaceutical companies one day to respond to the request and giving state attorneys until Friday to reply to that response.
The judge’s quick action came after attorneys warned the judge that unless she acts quickly to send a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers back to state court in Cleveland County, the case may be taken out of her hands and consolidated with other cases overseen by a federal court in Columbus, Ohio.
If that happens, “over 365 people will die of opioids in Oklahoma” over the next year while the case languishes in Ohio, the attorneys predicted.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and more than a dozen other opioid manufacturers last year in Cleveland County District Court in Norman. The lawsuit accused the drug companies of contributing to the state’s opioid epidemic by making fraudulent marketing claims that greatly understated the addictive risks of the painkillers while overstating theirtreatment benefits.
The lawsuit was on a fast track to go to trial in May 2019 when attorneys for the pharmaceutical companies unilaterally moved the case to federal court last week, contending there were important federal questions that needed to be resolved. The drug companies contended state attorneys were seeking to usurp federal law and U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations related to drug marketing disclosures.
State attorneys strongly objected, contending the drug company attorneys were violating a written agreement not to try to move the case as long as the lawsuit wasn’t amended.
They asked Judge MilesLaGrange to conduct an expedited review process and send the case back to Cleveland County.
The judge had issued an order last Friday in which she declined to fast track the review process, but reversed course Wednesday after reviewing Wednesday morning’s more detailed court filing.
“To put it simply: if the court waits for the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation or conditional transfer order process to be completed, this court may lose jurisdiction over this case forever and the fate of Oklahoma and its citizens will be handled by a judge in Ohio, not Oklahoma — a judge whom the state is concerned may have difficulty being entirely impartial,” state attorneys said. “Put even more simply: remand delayed is justice denied; and justice denied means addiction and death to Oklahoma citizens. It is really that simple.”
Meanwhile, Gentner Drummond, who is running against Hunter for attorney general, issued a news release blaming a “rookie mistake” by Hunter and his legal team for placing the state in jeopardy of having the case transferred to federal court.
“Mike Hunter and his crony attorneys are squarely to blame for this unfortunate development in the State’s opioid lawsuit,” Drummond said. “It was a strategic blunder on their part to invoke federal guidelines in their response to discovery filings. That rookie mistake gave the pharmaceutical companies the grounds they needed to seek removal of the suit to federal court.”
Hunter called Drummond’s criticism “illinformed and unprofessional.”
“Mr. Drummond continues to demonstrate a deeply troubling lack of understanding of the legal system,” Hunter said. “His criticism of our legal team today ... has established a new low.”
Reggie Whitten, a member of the state’s legal team, denied a mistake was made. Whitten said all the attorneys did was answer a legal question honestly while under oath and said he didn’t believe there was anything in that answer that would warrantremoval of the case to federal court.
“I’m sure this court will decide this issue appropriately, and we’ll find out,” Whitten said.
Drummond and Hunter will face each other Tuesday in the Republican primary election for state attorney general. Angela Bonilla, an attorney with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, is the third Republican candidate in that race.
A runoff is possible. The Republican winner will face Democrat Mark Myles in the November general election.