re: VIOXX - another case of US Tort System running amok
in light of such background stories, I hope that this money printing maching for groups of tort lawyers ambushing industry after industry is finally getting addressed at its root cause - the US judiciary system and the structure of legislative order surrounding it. As an investor I really don't care whether my property rights are stolen by a government pillaging my firm as in Russia with Yukos or whether the trial lawyers of the firms' host country do the same job...
biz.yahoo.com
Associated Press
Lawyers Donated to Vioxx Judge's Campaign
Friday April 22, 6:03 pm ET
By Phillip Rawls, Associated Press Writer
Plaintiff Lawyers in First Vioxx Case Donated $60,000 to Alabama Judge's Campaign
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The judge handling the first scheduled wrongful death trial over the pain reliever Vioxx received $60,000 in campaign contributions last year from political action committees funded by the law firm that filed the suit.
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An Associated Press review of campaign finance reports found six PACs funded entirely by the Beasley Allen law firm contributed $35,000 directly to Circuit Judge John Rochester's unsuccessful campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court in 2004. Five other PACs funded entirely by the law firm gave $25,000 to Rochester's campaign, routing it through another PAC.
The Beasley Allen firm represents Cheryl Rogers, an Alabama woman who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Merck & Co. on behalf of her husband, claiming the Vioxx pills marketed by the New Jersey-based drug maker led to his death.
The trial is scheduled to start May 23 in the east Alabama town of Ashland, where he is the only circuit judge. But first Rochester is to hold a hearing Tuesday on Merck's motion that the case be thrown out. Merck lawyers filed documents alleging that the pills Rogers claimed her husband took didn't leave the company until six months after he died.
The $60,000 tied to the Beasley Allen firm represented 11 percent of the $551,807 that Rochester reported raising for his entire Supreme Court campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed by the PACs and the judge.
Rochester, in an interview Friday with the AP, said state judicial rules prohibit him from talking about a pending case, but donations from any source do not influence him.
"If it had any influence, I would violate my oath of office, and I'd be removed from office," he said.
Former Alabama Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley, who heads the Montgomery-based Beasley Allen firm, said he openly supported Rochester during last year's campaign and supported him in previous campaigns. "He's been a friend of mine for years," Beasley said.
Merck lawyers have not filed any objection with Rochester about the donations.
"We were generally aware that the Beasley Allen law firm contributed to judicial campaigns, but the information reporters have unearthed about what appear to be very large contributions through several different entities is a surprise to us," Merck attorney Ted Mayer said in a statement Friday.
Merck, which is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, N.J., removed Vioxx from the market last Sept. 30 after a study found it doubled the risk of heart attack and strokes in patients taking it for more than 18 months. That opened the lawsuit floodgates; more than 2,400 have been filed so far.
Beasley maintains that the legal contributions don't give his law firm an advantage going into Tuesday's hearing before Rochester. "In my opinion, he'd be fair regardless," Beasley said.
Alabama is one of nine states that choose their highest court in partisan elections, and there is no limit on how much PACs can give.
Rochester, a Democrat who has been a circuit judge since 1987, said he doesn't like the way Alabama uses expensive, partisan elections to select judges.
"The way we fund and elect judges in the state is not a good way to do business because of questions like this coming up," he said.
Republican Mike Bolin, who beat Rochester last year, reported raising $1.67 million -- nearly triple what Rochester did -- with much of that coming from businesses and PACs they funded.
Rochester did not report receiving any contributions from Merck, and company spokesman Kent Jarrell said there were none routed through PACs.
Rochester also did not report receiving any contributions from the Alabama law firm defending Merck. The Rushton, Stakely, Johnston & Garrett firm based in Montgomery did contribute at least $750 to Rochester's GOP opponent, according to Bolin's filing.
The Beasley Allen law firm was the sole source of funding last year for a series of 16 PACs that were simply named by numbers -- One PAC, Two PAC, for example. Six of those PACs gave $35,000 directly to Rochester's campaign last year, according to campaign finance reports filed by the PACs and by Rochester.
Other numbered PACs funded soley by Beasley Allen gave $50,000 to the PAC of the Alabama League of Environmental Action Voters on Oct. 7, 2004. That same day the PAC reported making a $25,000 donation to Rochester and another $25,000 donation to another judicial candidate openly supported by Beasley.
PAC officer Jeff Martin also operates the numbered PACs. He said Friday it was Beasley Allen money that went to Rochester from the environmental PAC.
Former state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham, who founded the Alabama League of Environmental Action Voters, said he was not familiar with the donations, but said plaintiff attorneys can also be environmentalists.
Turnham noted that Alabama judges often receive large donations from business groups whose member firms have lawsuits that are heard by those judges. |
