Pennsylvania Supreme Court Refuses to Examine $76 Million Risperdal Judgement Against Johnson & Johnson
Decision sets the stage for a new trial for punitive damages
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court shot down Johnson & Johnson’s last ditch effort to avoid a $76 million judgement in the ongoing Risperdal litigation. Lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of boys allege that Johnson & Johnson misrepresented the risk of gynecomastia as a side effect, and that the company illegally marketed the drug off-label to children. Gynecomastia is the development of female breasts in boys.
According to Law360, an earlier ruling in Pennsylvania's Superior Court declared: "[Yount] was just 4½ years old when first prescribed Risperdal, and he has never since known life without gynecomastia. At sixteen years of age when the jury considered its award, [Yount] was living with severe and permanent disfigurement. The undisputed record confirms he has been routinely bullied and teased by peers and is too humiliated to ever remove his shirt in recreational or social situations where it would be customary for boys to do so when enjoying ordinary pleasures of youth."
In July of 2016, after a weeks long trial, the jury awarded plaintiff Andrew Yount $70 million, declaring that the J&J subsidiary was “. . .negligent by failing to provide an adequate warning to Andrew’s healthcare providers about the risk of gynecomastia from taking Risperdal.” They also found “negligence a substantial factor in bringing about Andrew Yount’s gynecomastia,” and they found Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary did “intentionally falsify, destroy or conceal records containing material evidence in this case.”
On August 10, 2016, the judge in the case added delay damages in the amount of $6,661,027.40, bringing the final judgement to $76,661,027.40. In an order dated June 20, the Court entered an opinion supporting the jury’s verdict, stating “the record contains material evidence to support the jury’s verdict of seventy million dollars.” (Page 92)
In the subsequent four years, Johnson & Johnson has exhausted its appellate remedies. Moreover, thanks to a September of 2018 Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruling, Yount’s case is destined to return to court, this time to decide punitive damages. The ruling reversed a lower Court decision that prevented plaintiff’s from seeking punitive damages. The first and only Risperdal case yet to reach verdict for punitive damages resulted in an $8 Billion jury verdict in October 2019.
Johnson & Johnson reported 11,900 Risperdal claims in their 2020 10K filing.
