WVa opioid trial verdict still pending nearly a year later

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Last July, a federal judge in West Virginia heard closing arguments in the first lawsuit to go to trial over the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic.

With an avalanche of documents from the three-month trial, Judge David Faber didn’t indicate when he would make a ruling on the multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against three major drug distributors, and his decision wasn't expected right away.

Now, nearly a year later, there’s still no verdict, and a landmark case remains a book without a final chapter — even as the full dimensions of addiction, desperation, broken families and death continue to deepen the scope of the tragedy unfolding in one corner of West Virginia.

“It is pretty unusual, but maybe this is an unusual trial,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.

Some 81 million pain pills were sent to Cabell County from 2006 to 2014. The lawsuit accused distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. of creating a public nuisance with the onslaught and ignoring the signs that the area was being ravaged by addiction.

Tobias noted that most other similar trials involving the opioid epidemic have been before juries, not handled by judges alone.

“It’s mystifying, I think, at this point," Tobias said.

Until recently, there hadn’t been any activity for two months on the case’s docket. On Monday, Faber addressed what he called a “renewed” motion by the defendants, issuing a 24-page order to exclude some testimony from an expert witness for the plaintiffs.

West Virginia University law professor Patrick McGinley said that while he isn't surprised by the months that have gone by since closing arguments, “I would think it's time, really,” for a decision.

Still,...