Oklahoma Supreme Court Reverses Opioid Verdict Against Drugmakers

In a Tuesday morning ruling, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court reversed a district court ruling finding opioid manufacturers created a public nuisance in Oklahoma.

The decision was five to one with three justices being disqualified or recused from the case. It comes after opioid manufactures appealed a landmark $465 million Cleveland County verdict. 

"We hold the opioid manufacturer's actions did not create a public nuisance. The district court erred in extending the public nuisance statute to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of prescription opioids," the 28-page majority ruling found.

Justice James Edmondson was the lone dissented jurist writing, “The Attorney General’s basic theory of the case is tenable, both in law and equity. The Court’s view of public nuisance is too narrow…”

Appellants in the case include Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals among others.

Johnson & Johnson issued the following statement to News 9:

"We recognize the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue, and we have deep sympathy for everyone affected. The Company’s actions relating to the marketing and promotion of these important prescription pain medications were appropriate and responsible. Today the Oklahoma State Supreme Court appropriately and categorically rejected the misguided and unprecedented expansion of the public nuisance law as a means to regulate the manufacture, marketing, and sale of products, including the Company’s prescription opioid medications."