(Washington) The US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the validity of a compensation agreement of some $6 billion in the opioid crisis on the grounds that it exempted the Sackler family, owner of the Purdue laboratory, from any future lawsuits arising from of victims.
The Court ruled by a majority of five votes to four. The Department of Justice criticized this agreement, concluded in 2022 with the 50 American states, local communities and individual victims and validated by a federal appeals court, of protecting the Sackler family from any future prosecution, including victims who did not consent to it.
“The Bankruptcy Code does not authorize […] immunization from lawsuits without the consent of affected plaintiffs,” wrote Neil Gorsuch on behalf of the majority, joined by three other conservative judges and one progressive.
The overprescription of this opiate is generally considered to be the trigger of the crisis which has claimed more than half a million victims in 20 years in the United States.
Targeted by an avalanche of lawsuits, the Purdue pharmaceutical laboratory declared bankruptcy in 2019 and has since negotiated a plan, the latest version of which provides for its closure by 2024 in the United States for the benefit of a new entity and the payment of ‘at least $5.5 billion over 18 years.
The Supreme Court suspended this agreement in August at the request of the government.
If the Justice Department’s bankruptcy trustee, who is challenging the deal, “is successful, billions of dollars in opioid prevention and compensation will evaporate and creditors and victims will be left with nothing.” , argued the laboratory’s lawyer, Gregory Garre.
His colleague representing the victims who signed the agreement, Pratik Shah, also considered it “irresponsible for the trustee in bankruptcy to suggest that there is some kind of secret alternative to obtain compensation”, saying that “without the exemption, the plan will unravel”.
“We say there are other opioid victims who have also suffered tragic harm who say they do not consent to having their rights forcibly extinguished,” replied government lawyer Curtis Gannon.
The Justice Department said the Sacklers “siphoned” some $11 billion from the company in the years before it declared bankruptcy in 2019.
