×

Wood County Commission hears update on opioids lawsuit

PARKERSBURG — Wood County officials got an update Thursday on the litigation the county is involved in against the manufacturers of opioids in connection with the drug epidemic throughout the area.

Attorneys with Harris & Holmes PLLC, Kevin Harris and Eric Holmes, appeared before the Wood County Commission Thursday to discuss the status of the opioid litigation. The attorneys met with the commission in executive session with the commission citing attorney-client privilege.

No action was taken following the session.

Holmes gave an update on the lawsuit.

“We are pleased to report the complaint against the defendant, the manufacturers and distributors, has been filed in Marshall County,” Holmes said. “We are before Judge (David W.) Hummel.

“There are 30 plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits associated with the opioid litigation that includes various counties and municipalities in the state of West Virginia.”

Harris & Holmes of Ripley is working with the Ford Law Office of Clarksburg, which is working with Marc J. Bern & Partners of New York, which the county signed with last year to join in lawsuits against drug manufacturers for the drug addiction crisis in the country.

Harris & Holmes is representing counties locally which have created the Mid-Ohio Valley Alliance for Opioid Litigation, which includes Pleasants, Ritchie, Wood, Wirt, Roane and Jackson counties.

Holmes said the complaint filed in court is a “very detailed” 138-page document.

“It details what we believe to be the systematic abuse of a system to place opioids into the hands of people here in the state of West Virginia in mass quantities, quantities that did not match up with the treatment and that complaint gives in great detail how the drug companies knew how these opioids were so addictive, but hid that from a lot of the doctors and medical providers and falsified quite a bit of information just for the sake of profit which has led to where we are at right now which is a complete and total disaster with regard to drug abuse in West Virginia.”

Neither Holmes nor Harris would comment if a recent $37 million settlement the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office reached with McKesson Corp. over the company’s role in the opioid situation will have any impact in how they deal with the defendants in the lawsuit they are working on.

They are still early in the process and cannot predict how things will shape up, they said.

There are over 30 plaintiffs across West Virginia involved in lawsuits.

The defendants in their lawsuit have filed a motion with the West Virginia Supreme Court to have all of these cases referred to a state mass litigation panel, Holmes said, adding they have filed a response objecting.

“If the defendants’ motion is accepted these cases will be referred to a panel of seven Circuit Court Judges that are active members or on senior status that are appointed by the West Virginia Supreme Court,” Holmes said. “If the motion is denied the case we have will be heard by Judge Hummel in Marshall County.”

“We believe Judge Hummel is more than adequate to handle these cases,” Holmes said. “He is a former mass litigation judge and we believe he will be the appropriate judge to handle that. We don’t believe this case needs to be heard by a mass litigation panel at all.”

In other business:

∫ Fred Rader of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council appeared before the commission to get approval from the county to apply for an $80,000 Alternative Transportation Grant to connect the North Bend Rail Trail system to the park-and-ride on W.Va. 47 just past DeBarr Trucking. The rail trail currently goes to the Happy Valley area.

“It is something that has been worked on for decades,” Commission President Blair Couch said. “It would not be that heavy of a lift to get it the rest of the way into Parkersburg.”

This section of the project has taken a lot of time to come together, Couch said.

A local match of $18,000 is required, but officials said the North Bend Rail to Trail Foundation will be able to cover that match. The commission unanimously gave its approval for the grant application.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today