Huntington, Cabell County trial against distributors begins

A landmark federal trial about how a flood of prescription pills affected West Virginia communities will start next week.

“I’ll see everybody Monday,” U.S. District Judge David Faber told lawyers on all sides at the end of a status hearing today.

Faber will be presiding over a bench trial about how much wholesalers McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen should be accountable for the costs of opioid addiction in West Virginia communities.

The wholesalers deny wrongdoing.

The plaintiffs include the Cabell County Commission and City of Huntington, which contend the companies compounded the drug crisis by saturating the region with shipments of prescription painkillers.

The lawsuit, filed in 2017, blames the “Big Three” for fueling the crisis by distributing nearly 100 million opioid pills in Cabell County over a 10-year period.

The case was part of a group of similar cases being considered in federal court in Cleveland but was released back to U.S. District Court in West Virginia’s Southern District in late 2019. The trial’s initial start date was delayed while the coronavirus pandemic was at its worst.

On Wednesday, Judge Faber assured the case will actually go to trial by denying motions for summary judgment.

A hearing this morning dealt with some of the ground rules of the trial.

Faber said it will begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday. The judge set guidelines of three hours of opening statement for each side.

On the days after that, the judge anticipates starting at 9 a.m. and going until noon. The trial would then resume each day at 2 and go to 5 p.m.

Faber has already set a limit of 30 people in the courtroom because of ongoing precautions from the covid-19 pandemic. That will limit attendance to the judge, lawyers, court officials and witnesses. An overflow courtroom is being set up for media and members of the public.

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