JACKSON - The Mississippi Supreme Court has ordered separate trials for 37 plaintiffs in a Smith County lawsuit against the makers of the heartburn drug Propulsid.
The justices, as they had in decisions dating back to February, ruled Thursday it was improper to group the plaintiffs together when their claims did not arise from the same incident.
Justice James E. Graves, writing for the court, said the trial judge should not have allowed the cases to be consolidated into one.
"The discretion to consolidate cases is restrained by our paramount concern for a fair and impartial trial for all parties, plaintiffs and defendants," Graves wrote. "There is an innate danger in asking jurors to assimilate vast amounts of information against a variety of defendants and then sort through that information to find what bits of it apply to which defendant.
"Here, the jury might well be overwhelmed with thirty-seven separate fact patterns that are offered to prove malpractice," Graves wrote.
The Supreme Court had halted proceedings in Propulsid cases last year until it resolved the issue of venue and class action raised by Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson.
The plaintiffs claim taking the heartburn drug caused heart problems, anxiety attacks and other conditions.
Attorneys for the drug maker had challenged decisions that allowed plaintiffs to join in the lawsuits even if they were from outside the area where the trial was being heard. The drug maker said each plaintiff's case should stand on its own and be held in the county where the plaintiff lives.
In all the cases, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the claims were triggered by same side effect from Propulsid, which they said was the common thread linking the complaints.
In February, the Mississippi Supreme Court set limits on how plaintiffs can join some mass litigation lawsuits in the state. That decision came in a similar lawsuit filed against Janssen Pharmaceutica in Jones County.
Graves said the trial judge should also sever all claims against defendants who have no connection to the lead plaintiff, Joe Keys, including all doctors who had not prescribed Propulsid to Keys.
The justice said the trial judge should also transfer the other plaintiffs' cases to those courts where they live.
In 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning stating Propulsid could cause irregular heartbeats and sudden death, and should only be used as a last resort for patients given heart tests to ensure they are at a low risk for the side effects.
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