By Destiney Dingess, The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON — Legal representatives are preparing to return to court regarding a lawsuit filed by a community dubbed “ground zero” of the opioid epidemic, after a federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a 2022 decision in favor of opioid distributors.
Last year, Huntington and Cabell County appealed Southern District Judge David A. Faber’s July 2022 ruling in favor of U.S. drug distributors who were accused by the city and county of causing a public health crisis by distributing millions of pills over eight years in the county, the Associated Press reported. AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. also were accused of ignoring the signs that Cabell County was being overwhelmed by addiction.
In his 2022 ruling, Faber said the state’s common law of public nuisance did not cover the sale, distribution and manufacture of opioids.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, decided Tuesday that there were errors in the 2022 ruling, sending the case back to the District Court for “further proceedings consistent with the principles expressed in this opinion.”
Mike Woelfel, co-counsel for Cabell County, said Wednesday that he expects the defendants to file a motion for an en banc consideration, which would ask the entire 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to look at the case. Woelfel said the en banc consideration process would take approximately six weeks.