NY Judge Sanctions Lawyer, Slashes Award fFrom $8 Million to $1.5 Million

A Southern District judge has sanctioned a plaintiffs’ lawyer and reduced the jury award in one of the bellwether cases in the multidistrict litigation over the anti-osteoporosis drug Fosamax. Judge John F. Keenan yesterday said the $8 million verdict returned by a jury in June in favor of plaintiff Shirley Boles was “excessive” and gave Ms. Boles the option of either getting a retrial on damages or taking $1.5 million. The first trial ended in a mistrial last year when the jury, who could be heard by the lawyers arguing loudly in the jury room, deadlocked 7-1.

Also, Ms. Boles’ lawyer, Gary Douglas of Douglas & London, was sanctioned $2,500 by the judge for referencing another Fosamax trial after being told explicitly not to mention other cases and for his conduct during summation when he called the conduct of the drug’s maker, Merck & Co., “reprehensible” and “disgusting.” The judge said that “to allow this type of argument and conduct…would be to countenance disorder in my courtroom, undermine the rule of law, and reward misbehavior. This was a trial, not a political campaign, and lawyers are supposed to follow the rules.”