Baltimore drops opioid lawsuit after Maryland Supreme Court vacates verdict

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Baltimore City last week dropped its lawsuit against two pharmaceutical giants over their role in the opioid epidemic after the Maryland Supreme Court dealt a major blow to its legal strategy.

The city was left with no cards to play after the state’s high court last month vacated last year’s $152 million verdict against Cencora and McKesson and, in a separate case, restricted how local governments could use the public nuisance doctrine to hold businesses accountable for public health issues.

Cencora did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for McKesson did not comment on the city’s decision to drop the case but thanked the court for vacating the verdict, saying the decision was “supported by the law and record.”

Unlike most local governments and states, Baltimore opted out of the global opioid settlements and chose to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors on its own. Even without the $152 million, which was cut by a city judge after a jury awarded more than $260 million, the strategy was successful, as the city won more than $400 million in settlements with other companies.

That money — nearly as much as the state of Maryland is set to receive from the global settlements — was not affected by the state Supreme Court’s decisions.

“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of Maryland’s recent rulings leave us no path forward to hold these defendants liable in the courts for their egregious conduct in causing and continuing the opioids crisis in our city,” said Jonas Poggi, a spokesperson for Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “As we stated before, we strongly disagree with the rulings — however, we are bound by them.”

Poggi continued that the settlement money will give the city “an unprecedented ability to address the opioid crisis in our community and save lives. While the legal fight is over, our resolve to eradicate the lingering effects of the defendants’ conduct in Baltimore is not.”

In late March, the Maryland Supreme Court ruled, in a lawsuit brought by Anne Arundel County, that pharmaceutical companies could not be held liable for creating a public nuisance for the lawful distribution of opioids.

Justice Brynja Booth wrote that allowing local governments to use the common-law doctrine of public nuisance would allow claims against an “endless list of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of manufactured products that are intended to be used lawfully.”

This story has been updated with a comment from McKesson.