CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that the mass litigation panel rightfully awarded summary judgment to three drug companies in two product liability cases.
J.C., by his mother Michelle C.; and I.H., by her mother, Angela H., appealed an order of the Mass Litigation Panel from February 2017 that was granted in favor of Pfizer, Roerig and Greenstone LLC, according to the May 15 opinion.
Justice Allen Loughry authored the majority opinion. Justice Menis Ketchum did not participate in the decision and Berkeley Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes participated in his absence.
Loughry
Litigation began in 2012 when several mothers claimed their children suffered from various birth defects after the mothers had taken Zoloft during pregnancy.
The mothers claimed Pfizer negligently failed to warn them of the risks of birth defects
When Dr. Adam C. Urato, a key liability expert, was unable to come for a deposition for the petitioners in the lawsuits, the petitioners sought leave to continue attempting to connect with him, according to the opinion.
The mothers were unable to do so and the Mass Litigation Panel issued an order on Sept. 9, 2016, excluding Urato as an expert in the cases because of the inability to appear for deposition.
Another expert, Dr. David A. Kessler, was scheduled for a deposition in November 2016, but two days before the scheduled deposition was to take place, the petitioners filed to have him withdrawn with no explanation.
Pfizer then filed a motion for summary judgment and argued that the petitioners could not meet the evidentiary burden that was required of them from their allegations.
The Mass Litigation Panel entered an order awarding summary judgment to Pfizer on Feb. 15, 2017. The petitioners then appealed the order to the state Supreme Court.
Loughry wrote in the opinion that when a claim involves highly complex matters such as those in these cases regarding Zoloft, expert testimony is a necessity and the petitioners could not do so without an expert witness, which they failed to produce.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Mass Litigation Panel's order granting the respondents summary judgment.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Case number: 17-0282