New York Firm Wins Appeals Court Reversal in Fen-Phen Case

By William Murphy

Published on June 22, 2006

The court ruled that it had erred in December 2005 when it reversed a trial judge's decision that would have allowed the Parker case to proceed. Parker alleged in the suit that Napoli had mishandled cases and refused to split client fees in cases involving fen-phen diet drug litigation against drug maker Wyeth. In 2005 the appeals court agreed with Napoli that in bringing the suit Parker was improperly attempting to reopen 5,600 cases that had already been settled.

Parker had provided more than 400 clients to Napoli's suit against Wyeth, which sought compensation for clients who had taken the drug maker's fen-phen-containing diet drugs. Some tort firms collect hundreds and sometimes thousands of clients and distribute them to other law firms, which then combine the cases.

Wyeth pulled its diet drugs from the marketplace in 1997 after the active ingredient, a fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine "cocktail" popularly known as fen-phen, was tied to heart valve problems and sometimes-fatal lung disorders. Wyeth has set aside $21.1 billion to settle fen-phen-related litigation.

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