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Posts in the ‘Verdicts’ category

$25 Million Award in Accutane Inflammatory Bowel Disease Lawsuit

Posted on September 23rd, 2011 by Robert D. Rowland

A New Jersey judge has ordered Swiss drugmaker Roche, the maker of Accutane, to pay $25 million to a former user of the acne medicine who developed severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) after taking the drug.

Andrew McCarrell, 38, became sick after taking the drug for several months in 1995. He needed five surgeries, including one to remove his colon, and suffers daily pain and anguish from Accutane IBD. He won the verdict after NJ judge Carol Higbee denied Roche’s request for a new trial or remittitur.

One of the first Accutane cases to reach a jury in the United States, the case was originally filed in 2003 and first went to trial in 2007, resulting in a jury award of $2,619,000. The case was remanded for a new trial when Roche requested to introduce evidence on the total number of Accutane users.

The nine jurors ruled unanimously that McCarrell deserved $25 million in compensation for pain and suffering and $159,000 for past medical expenses. McCarrell claimed Roche violated New Jersey’s consumer fraud law.

Judge Higbee denied Roche’s requests for a new trial or a reduction in awarded damages to McCarrell, indicating that she found no sense of “wrongness” in the jury’s award in a 47-page opinion, stating:

“[McCarrell's] testimony and that of his wife and doctors presented a picture of probably the worst case of pain, suffering and loss of quality of life I ever heard described on my eighteen years on the bench.”

It doesn’t matter when you took Accutane or how long it took for your symptoms to appear – if you feel as though your personal use of Accutane has caused you issues, please contact Robert D. Rowland.

$1.3 Million Award Against Missouri Department of Transportation

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by The Firm

A former member of GHAR represented the family of Jemma Dant, a 28 year-old woman who was tragically killed on December 6, 2005. Ms. Dant, on what would have been her second day at a new job, was sitting in traffic on westbound 44 at Vandeventer. Traffic backup was so severe that Ms. Dant was 1450 feet from the exit. The backup caused her to sit, stopped, on the actual interstate where cars were traveling at high speeds. At the same time, a tractor trailer was traveling in the middle lane. The truck driver saw that his exit was after Vandeventer so he merged right. He saw that traffic was stopped and although he tried, was unable to stop his truck resulting in a collision with Ms. Dant’s vehicle. The collision was so violent that it shoved Ms. Dant’s car underneath the tractor trailer stopped in front of her, killing her instantly.

We all know how big and scary semi-trucks can be, especially when traveling fast. Most people fear driving too close to a semi because we know it is impossible for a, 80,000 pound truck to stop quickly. MoDot knew that traffic was backing up at this location for two years prior to this accident. In fact, it had a plan in place since 2003 to try to correct the problem. Even though it knew of the danger, MoDot did not warn motorists of the stopped traffic. We filed suit against MoDot and the truck driver, on behalf of Ms. Dant’s family. We settled out of court with the truck driver and his family.

The case was tried to a panel of three Arbitrators on November 9, 2009. We argued that the stopped traffic on the highway caused a dangerous condition that motorists should have been warned of. MoDot could have put in place signing telling thru traffic to stay out of the far right lane. It could have put up signing warning motorists of the traffic backup. We see signs similar to this all over today. MoDot had no answer as to why there were no signs. They didn’t think the signs were needed. A MoDot engineer even argued that putting up a sign would have been too difficult because the wind would have blown it down.

The Arbitrators agreed with us that MoDot was partly responsible for Ms. Dant’s death. They agreed that while the truck driver was to blame, MoDot shared that blame for failing to warn motorists, especially out-of-town motorists. An award of $1.3 million was entered in favor of the family. According to Missouri law, MoDot can only be liable up to $378,814 in such a case. This award will be reduced to the current cap.

This was one of the most unfortunate cases I have ever worked on not only because of the immense loss, but because it was preventable. Hopefully, this case will be a reminder to MoDot, and other public entities, that corners should not be cut when it comes to human life.

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