Teva Pharmaceuticals and Baxter International, the most recent companies to find themselves on the losing end of Bob Eglet's jury-whooping stick, have filed a Motion for Stay and a Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law or, In the Alternative, For New Trial. Both motions will be heard on July 12, 2010, along with Eglet's Motion for Attorney's Fees and Interest (you know ... just for good measure).
From the RJ:
[Defense counsel Mark] Tully in court papers asked district Judge Jessie Walsh to reduce the award to a “single digit” ratio over the $5 million compensatory award the jury granted. He argued the U.S. Supreme Court has said any punitive damages awards in excess of four times the compensatory award “might be close to the line of constitutional impropriety.”Which is still more than four, but Nevada law exempts product liability judgments from a cap on damages ... so we'll see how this plays out.
Eglet disagreed, saying the defendants misrepresented how the jury arrived at the figure. When properly calculated, he argued, the ratio is 27 times for Teva and 11 times for Baxter.
Teva/Baxter also threw out some boilerplate accusations, apparently forgetting where they were practicing law:
The defendants and critics of the jury award question the relationship between Eglet’s law firm, Mainor Eglet Cottle, and Walsh. Records show that firm and its attorneys contributed $40,000 to her 2008 judicial campaign. Eglet said the contributions are a “red herring” designed to discredit “a fine judge.”Fine, fine judge. Fine fine fine fine fine fine fine ... 500 million times over.
Regarding the manufacturer of the offending drug, propofol (incidentally, one of the drugs that killed Michael Jackson), Teva has decided to take its ball and go home. From the Chicago Tribune:
The drug is hard to manufacture and the company gets little or no profit from it, said Denise Bradley, a spokeswoman for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.Oh, and there's the fact that Teva is facing almost 250 lawsuits connected to the drug.
(LVRJ; Chicago Tribune; Case No. A571172; Thanks, Tipsters!)
Does anyone actually think that this case can withstand even cursory review in Carson City? Bob's a great atty but 500 million may turn out to be a curse. Also some of Walsh's pretrial rulings are downright silly.
ReplyDeleteGreed?
ReplyDeleteThe defendants REALLY need in-state counsel to do the post judgment motions and appeal, or they will go down in flames.
ReplyDelete8:19 - What is "downright silly" is the fact that Jesse Walsh is a judge at all. But that same thing could be said about several of the District Court judges.
ReplyDeleteWhen your firm gives $40k to a judge's campaign (and all told it's been much much more if you count expenditures for lavish parties where others come to give money), you lose the right to act indignant if someone calls the relationship into question. Eglet does a great job, no question. But having Walsh (and others) in his pocket certainly doesn't hurt his cause. In Vegas, it's all part of the game and it's been going on for decades.
Hmmm. Afinal judgment on the merits has been entered. When the post judgment motions are resolved, can anyone say res judicata? Las I checked the pendency of an appeal does not affect the finality of a judgment. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteThe appellate issues in this case were meticulously preserved. In most jurisdictions, this case would not ever have seen a jury. The problem the defense will have on appeal is the fact that they will run into more dimwits (Cherry, Saita, Gibbons, Douglas, etc.) in Carson City. Teva is fighting a losing battle. Offer Eglet $10mil now and get this tarbaby settled.
ReplyDelete9:24, 10 million is not enough. Methinks Sir Bob will not go away for less than 50 million.
ReplyDeleteI agree that they wouldn't go away for $10 mill, but how do you explain that decision to the client? You can either get a couple million dollars now, guaranteed, or we can have this tied up in appeals for the next few years, potentially face a complete reversal and/or a dramatically reduced award.
ReplyDeleteAnd even if the judgment is upheld, I'm sure that executing on the judgment will not be a simple task, with Teva being an Israeli company and all. I wonder how much Hutchison has collected on his $500 million judgment against California.
Maybe the clients are obscenely greedy and truly feel they need a couple hundred million to feel better about their diseases, but it seems it's in everyone's interest, except MEC's, to settle this case for a lot less than the judgment.
I don't practice personal injury, but how do you pitch a potential multimillion dollar settlement to your client as being inadequate?
40k is a absurdly high amount to donate to a judge's campaign, especially when the judge only raised 280k. For more fun facts on just which of the plaintiff's firms gave to Judge Walsh, check out her 2008 campaign disclosure form here:
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/bw6ARh
9:24 although I disagree with your premise, your post just validated the prior statement that the defendants need local counsel ASAP
ReplyDeleteDoes that make up the total contributions? If so, where are they getting $40k? Adding up all contributions from MEC or any of their individual attorneys, I don't even see $20k.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do see various other seedy plaintiff attorneys on there like Snell & Wilmer, Cobeaga, Alverson Taylor, Jolly Urga, etc. Damn those ambulance chasers.
Why are they raising campaign contributions after the verdict? She's whacky anyway. Why wait???
ReplyDelete$15mm and out
ReplyDelete@924am
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you know about the NEC. But Gibbons and Douglas are far from dimwits. Say what you want about Saitta and even Cherry.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jun/23/las-vegas-lawyer-accused-concealing-900000-income/
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but this should be interesting.
hmmm... if memory serves me right, that is the second attorney named LoBello to get in trouble for tax evasion.
ReplyDeleteSo does this thread say that I need to start attending those judicial candidate fundraisers?
ReplyDeleteThe drug is hard to manufacture and the company gets little or no profit from it, said Denise Bradley, a spokeswoman for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of breaks my hear. I hate big pharma, but I also hate seeing otherwise useful drugs pulled from the market.
the contributions were a little higher then $40,000 more like 100,000 if you look a little deeper and track the parties connections joint efforts
ReplyDelete