Women awarded damages in DES case.Eleven women whose mothers took diethylstilbestrol diethylstilbestrol: see DES. (DES) while they were pregnant were recently awarded substantial compensatory damages A sum of money awarded in a civil action by a court to indemnify a person for the particular loss, detriment, or injury suffered as a result of the unlawful conduct of another. against the companies that manufactured the drug. It is one of the few DES cases to go to trial. (Chernosky v. Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is a diversified pharmaceuticals and health care company. It has over 65,000 employees and operates in 130 countries. The corporate headquarters are in Abbott Park, Illinois, a neighborhood of North Chicago, Illinois. , No. 22765-87 (N.Y., N.Y. County Sup. Ct. Jan. 7. 1994).) The plaintiffs - ranging in age from 30 to 46 - included three women with clear cell cancer and eight others with reproductive-tract anomalies, resulting in problems such as high-risk pregnancies or infertility. The jury set the awards without consideration of liability (to be determined later) for Boyle & Co., Carnrick Laboratories, Inc., and Emmons Industries. Several other drug companies settled before trial. "It's a great win for women," said plaintiffs' counsel Sybil Shainwald of New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , who co-chairs ATLA's DES Litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. Group. "The jury put a value on what it means to a woman to lose her right to reproduce due to an unsafe, untested, useless drug." DES is a synthetic hormone that was manufactured by an estimated 300 drug companies and prescribed to 5 million pregnant women between 1947 and 1971 to reduce miscarriage. Because the plaintiffs could not identify which of the companies made the DES their mothers took, the three companies are liable only for the percentage of the market share they commanded. New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of attorney Eric Statman, who represents Emmons Industries, said the market-share provisions mean that the total amount of the verdict will never be paid because the three companies had only small shares of the market. "The most they can recover from these defendants is $400,000," he said. (DES Daughters Awarded $42 Million, But..., Nat'l L.J., Jan. 24, 1994, at 6.) |
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