The widower of a woman who committed suicide after taking Paxil® has won a significant ruling in his wrongful death lawsuit against SmithKline that allows him to pursue his claim that the company hid the truth about the drug's side effects from the FDA.
Anita B. Brody, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge, refuses to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit on statute-of-limitations grounds, finding instead that the plaintiff must be allowed discovery on issues relating to when the manufacturer first learned of Paxil®'s risk of suicide.
"Issues that must be fleshed out include: the date and extent of defendants' alleged knowledge of Paxil's risk of suicidality; the scope of defendants' duty to disclose the risk and its efforts, if any, to do so; and its communications, if any, with Mrs. Hoppe or her doctor or others similarly situated," Brody wrote.
In the lawsuit, plaintiff Jon R. Hoppe claims that when his late wife was prescribed Paxil® to treat her depression, the drug "actually worsened the effects of her depression and induced her to commit suicide." Hoppe filed the wrongful death lawsuit in September 2005.
SmithKline's legal team moved to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit, arguing that it was filed too late because Pennsylvania has a two-year statute of limitations for wrongful death suits.
But Hoppe's attorneys argued that the statute of limitations should be tolled due to SmithKline's "fraudulent concealment."
The Hoppe's attorneys argued that SmithKline fraudulently concealed Paxil®'s risk of suicidality from the 1990s until the spring of 2004 when they were ordered by the FDA to change Paxil®'s labeling and notify the health care community.
Now Brody has ruled that the plaintiff must be allowed discovery on the issue.
Under Pennsylvania law, Brody said, a defendant's fraudulent concealment "will not absolutely bar the limitations defense, but rather, will toll the limitations period only until such time as the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered the fraud."
Reference:
"Federal Judge Rules Discovery 'Necessary' as Paxil Suit Continues," The Legal Intelligencer, Shannon P. Duffy, July 2006.
