- Eight drug companies on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to disqualify the judge overseeing nationwide opioid litigation, in a last-ditch effort to avoid having him preside over a landmark trial in three weeks.
FILE PHOTO: Cataldo Ambulance medics Ricky Cormio and Luke Magnant take a 40-year-old woman out of a grocery store where she was found unresponsive in the store's bathroom after overdosing on opioids in the Boston suburb of Malden, Massachusetts, U.S., November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
The request came six days after U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland refused to recuse himself and said he had done nothing to favor the state and local governments suing for damages, including by encouraging settlements. But the eight pharmacy chains and drug distributors told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati that Polster has “lost sight” of his responsibility to appear unbiased, including by acknowledging a “personal mission” to address the opioid crisis.
Polster oversees more than 2,300 of the roughly 2,600 lawsuits brought by state, local and tribal governments, hospitals and other entities seeking to hold the drug industry responsible for the toll of opioid abuse.Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Summit counties, the only plaintiffs, want $8 billion of damages, according to the eight companies.They added that removing Polster would help preserve “public confidence in the integrity of the judicial system.
Why would they ask that ?
Remove Milkshakes people lack the discipline to only have 1.