Arizona Opioid Lawsuit Remanded From Federal To State Court

Introduction

The Arizona District Court granted the City of Prescott’s Motion to send back its lawsuits over the opioid crisis in Arizona, from federal court to state court where it was initially filed. The decision was granted last Friday in favor of the city’s motion to remand, denying the defendant's motion to stay.

One defendant argued and removed the case stating that it should be tried in the massive multidistrict litigation(MDL), pending in Ohio federal court. Also, two other defendants filed a motion for the cases to remain in the Arizona District Court, so that the cases would be transferred to the MDL in Ohio following a Conditional Transfer Order (CTO) issued by the Judicial Panel on MDL.

The case dawned from a February 2019 motion filed by the Prescott City Council to pursue a civil lawsuit against the opioid manufacturers and distributors alleging their desire for profits above the health and well-being of Prescott’s residents.

The lawsuits will be presented before the Honorable John Napper of Yavapai County Superior Court. More than 1,900 opioid lawsuits have been filed under MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) which is presided by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster.

Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a petition filed by the parents of a National Hockey League player. The petition stated that the player lost his life due to an overdose of opioids prescribed by the team doctors. The ruling ended the five-year-old litigation in which the player's parents blamed NHL for his recurring concussions during his career.

The 28year old player died in 2011. He played for the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers; an autopsy revealed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a devastating brain condition common among ice-hockey players. His parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2013 against NHL and argued that a trial judge improperly tossed the suit under a Minnesota procedural rule, which requires wrongful death and other survival actions to be presented by a court-appointed trustee. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that the family fortified their claims by failing to respond to the NHL's argument that the complaint filed against the league was unjust. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed the case in 2017 and warned that the ruling, “should not be read to commend how the NHL handled the victim's particular circumstances or the circumstances of other NHL players who over the years have suffered injuries from the on-ice play.''

The lawsuits are consolidated as a part of multidistrict litigation, MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) in the Northern District of Ohio before U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster. The first bellwether trial in the litigation has been scheduled for September 3, 2019.

Allegations are made against opioid manufacturers that they violated the rules by not informing the Federal authorities about the unusual size, suspicious purchases, or the frequency of bulk purchases. There is an allegation that huge benefits were reaped by manufacturers, and they intentionally failed to inform the medical providers about the addictive nature and consequences of opioids.

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