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$152M Baltimore opioid verdict vacated by MD Supreme Court
The Maryland Supreme Court (formerly the Court of Appeals) building is shown in Annapolis in 2004. (The Daily Record/File Photo)
$152M Baltimore opioid verdict vacated by MD Supreme Court
Listen to this articleThe Maryland Supreme Court on Friday vacated last year’s $152 million verdict for Baltimore City against two opioid distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
The fate of Baltimore City’s case against the pharmaceutical giants McKesson and Cencora — which was largely based on public nuisance claims — was thrown into question last month when the Maryland Supreme Court ruled that the legal distribution of opioids isn’t a public nuisance.
In a per curiam order, the state’s high court vacated the verdict against McKesson and Cencora, which a Baltimore City judge slashed from $266 million, and remanded the case to Baltimore City Circuit Court.
The court ruled last month in Express Scripts that Anne Arundel County couldn’t use the common-law doctrine to hold pharmacy benefit managers and drug distributors accountable for their role in the proliferation of opioids.
“We decline to recognize a public right to be free from the adverse effects associated with a lawful product being diverted, misused, or abused,” Justice Brynja Booth wrote in the March opinion.
To do so, she continued, “would permit nuisance liability to be imposed on an endless list of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of manufactured products that are intended to be used lawfully, when such products are misused and cause injury.”
Before the case went to trial, many defendants settled with the city for more than $400 million.
