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Oklahoma Supreme Court overturns historic $465M opioid decision against Johnson & Johnson

Jackie Fortier / StateImpact Oklahoma
Attorneys for the state, Michael Burrage, then-Oklahoma AG Mike Hunter, Brad Beckworth, and mental health commissioner Terri White at a press conference after the verdict in August 2019.

After an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, the state will lose some, but not all, of the money it secured suing opioid manufacturers.

Under former Attorney General Mike Hunter, Oklahoma sued a spate of opioid makers, arguing that their practices created the opioid epidemic, and that in addition to pain and suffering, that epidemic cost the state billions to address.

Several of the drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma, settled before that case went before a judge. Those companies agreed to pay the state hundreds of millions.

However, Johnson & Johnson refused to settle.

Oklahoma's lawsuit alleged that Johnson & Johnson, through its pharmaceutical subsidiary Janssen, helped ignite a public health crisis that has killed thousands of state residents.

In August 2019, Cleveland County Judge Thad Balkman found the company liable and ordered it to pay $465 million. It was the first ruling to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for one of the worst drug epidemics in American history.

Balkman's ruling affirmed the key legal argument of the state’s case, that the drugmaker had created a public nuisance.

But, on Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court sided with Johnson & Johnson and overturned the district court's 2019 verdict.

In a 5-1 ruling, the state Supreme Court said the public nuisance law was not applied correctly. They said the public nuisance statute was erroneously extended to "the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of prescription opioids."

"In reaching this decision, we do not minimize the severity of the harm that thousands of Oklahoma citizens have suffered because of opioids. However grave the problem of opioid addiction is in Oklahoma, public nuisance law does not provide a remedy for this harm," the decision stated.

Because Johnson & Johnson’s payout was still tied up on appeal, it was never added to the state budget. The ruling does not affect the settlement money from the other drugmakers, which has been added to the state’s budget.

In response to Tuesday's ruling, current Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor said his staff will be exploring options and are "still pursuing our other pending claims against opioid distributors."

"Oklahomans deserve nothing less," O'Connor said.

Catherine Sweeney was StateImpact Oklahoma's health reporter from 2020 to 2023.
Ryan LaCroix is the Director of Content and Audience Development for KOSU.
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