CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge has sided with three drug wholesalers in a trial related to the opioid crisis, ruling against the city of Huntington and Cabell County in the process.
U.S. District Judge David Faber issued a judgment on Monday, almost a year after the trial’s closing arguments. The proceedings were part of the first federal trial involving opioid distributors.
Huntington and the Cabell County Commission had argued AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. created a public nuisance by shipping millions of opioid pills to these areas. The municipalities sought more than $2.5 billion for a 15-year abatement plan and programs addressing addiction and misuse.
With Faber’s decision, the municipalities will receive nothing.
“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington,” Faber said. “And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law.”
Huntington and Cabell County cited public nuisance, arguing that the three companies’ distribution of opioid products created an epidemic. The public health crisis has been associated with an increase in overdoses and deaths from misusing drugs. It also included an increase in infectious diseases — such as HIV and hepatitis B and C — as well as higher crime rates and lower property values.
According to Faber, most courts have rejected claims of public nuisance involving “the sale and distribution of a product.” The Supreme Court of Appeals for West Virginia has only applied the law in cases involving “conduct that interferes with public property or resources,” and West Virginia’s high court would likely decline to extend the law to situations related to opioid drugs.
“The extension of the law of nuisance to cover the marketing and sale of opioids is inconsistent with the history and traditional notions of nuisance,” he added. “The original legal character of nuisance was a wrongful disturbance of the enjoyment of real property or of its appurtenances falling short of a forcible trespass or ouster.”
Faber also noted Huntington and Cabell County failed to prove the alleged actions of the three distributors interfered with the public good. The judge said concerns about opioids are reasonable, but the drugs are also treatment options for people with chronic pain.
The plaintiffs argued distributors sent around 81 million opioid pills to Huntington and Cabell County — a combined area of fewer than 100,000 people — between 2006 and 2014. Faber, in his judgment, noted the figure is closer to 51 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone over the eight-year period.
Faber said the plaintiffs did not adequately show how the volume stemmed from unreasonable behavior.
“The volume of prescription opioids in Cabell/Huntington was determined by the good faith prescribing decisions of doctors in accordance with established medical standards,” Faber continued. “Defendants shipped prescription opioid pills to licensed pharmacies so patients could access the medication they were prescribed.”
Attorneys representing the city and Cabell County said they will explore possible actions following Monday’s decision. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams called Faber’s judgment “a blow to our city and community.”
“These companies were part of a powerful industry responsible for fueling the epidemic here in Huntington and across the country,” he said.
“We will work alongside our counsel to ensure the fight continues on behalf of so many who lost their lives and livelihoods to the opioid epidemic. The citizens of our city and county should not have to bear the principal responsibility of ensuring that an epidemic of this magnitude never occurs again.”