- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
- Egypt fears 'all out' regional war: foreign minister to AFP
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
- Monaco beat Le Havre to join PSG at the top of Ligue 1
- Scholz's party narrowly leads far-right AfD in east German state vote: exit polls
- New leftist president vows to 'rewrite Sri Lankan history'
- UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind
- Leclerc hails Ferrari fightback from torrid Singapore GP qualifying
- Belgian Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Sosa rescues point for Forest against Brighton
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory over Wolfsburg in seven-goal thriller
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: official results
- No fairytale ending for Ricciardo after 13 years in Formula One
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to step back from the brink
- What is the UN's 'Pact for the Future'?
- Norris dominates Singapore Grand Prix to cut Verstappen's title lead
- From bullets to ballots: Sri Lanka's comrade president-elect
- McLaren's Lando Norris wins Singapore GP to narrow F1 title race
- UN adopts pact promising to build 'brighter future' for humanity
- Military escalation not in Israel's 'best interest': White House
- Marxist leader declared Sri Lanka's president-elect
- Classes resume at Bangladesh university at heart of protests
- 'Barely anyone left': Sudan's El-Fasher devastated by fighting
- 'Warrior' Joshua vows to fight on despite Dubois mauling
- Martin extends MotoGP lead as Bastianini wins at Misano and Bagnaia crashes out
- New French government instantly under pressure on multiple fronts
- Australia's Brown adds world title to Olympic time trial gold
- Russian strike on Ukraine's Kharkiv wounds 21
- UK's Starmer rules out austerity as Labour conference opens
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: projected results
- Israel says 'landed blows' on Hezbollah as Lebanon violence intensifies
- Roma CEO steps down amid anger over club icon De Rossi's sacking
- Incoming French government under pressure on multiple fronts
- Hezbollah rockets strike near Israel's Haifa as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Haddad Maia roars back to beat Kasatkina in Korea Open final
- All-rounder Ashwin powers India to 280-run Test win over Bangladesh
- Failed Springbok 'gamble' sets up rugby championship decider
- Lebanon strikes send Israelis to shelters as UN warns of 'catastrophe'
- Far-right AfD eyes new win in east German state vote
- Tony Popovic set to become new Socceroos coach - reports
- All-round Ashwin powers India to big Test win over Bangladesh
- NZ chase 275 to win first Sri Lanka Test after Patel bags six
Divided US high court hears challenge to $6bn Purdue opioid settlement
The US Supreme Court appeared divided on Monday as it heard a challenge to Purdue Pharma's $6 billion opioids settlement immunizing the Sackler family that controlled the drugmaker from future litigation.
The Justice Department is arguing that the Sacklers, who earned tens of billions of dollars flooding the country with highly addictive opioids, should not gain sweeping legal protection in the controversial deal.
Last year's agreement, which came after years of negotiations involving officials from all 50 US states, set aside $6 billion from the 2019 bankruptcy of Purdue, which made prescription painkillers like OxyContin, for victims of the opioid epidemic.
The settlement, which has been put on hold by the Supreme Court, gave the families of Raymond Sackler and Mortimer Sackler protection from all future civil claims, effectively protecting their other assets from opioid-related lawsuits.
The Justice Department, acting as a bankruptcy watchdog body known as the US Trustee, accuses the Sacklers of withdrawing $11 billion from Purdue Pharma over the decade before the company filed for bankruptcy protection.
Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon outlined the Biden administration's objections to the deal before the nine justices on the nation's highest court.
"It permits the Sacklers to decide how much they're going to contribute," Gannon said. "It grants the Sacklers the functional equivalent of a discharge."
Justice Elena Kagan said this would appear to go against a "fundamental bargain in bankruptcy law, which is you get a discharge when you put all your assets on the table to be divided up among your creditors.
"And I think everybody thinks that the Sacklers didn't come anywhere close to doing that."
At the same time, the liberal justice went on to note there was vast support for the deal even "among people who think that the Sacklers are pretty much the worst people on Earth."
"It seems as though the federal government is standing in the way against the huge, huge, huge majority of claimants who have decided that if this provision goes under, they're going to end up with nothing," she said.
Purdue's bankruptcy filing resulted directly from the massive, country-wide litigation against it and other major drugmakers and pharmacy companies for knowingly fomenting the addiction crisis.
Under the March 2022 settlement, the Sacklers were "absolutely, unconditionally, irrevocably, fully, finally, forever and permanently" released from further legal liability.
- 'Left with nothing' -
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, appeared skeptical about throwing out a settlement that had been approved by more than 95 percent of the claimants who voted for the plan and of a type that he said bankruptcy courts have been approving for 30 years.
"I think what the opioid victims and their families are saying is you, the federal government, with no stake in this at all, are coming in and telling the families 'No, we're not going to give you prompt payment,'" Kavanaugh said. "In exchange, really, for this somewhat theoretical idea that they'll be able to recover money down the road from the Sacklers themselves."
Gregory Garre, representing Purdue Pharma, said rejecting the settlement could lead to years of litigation and leave victims with no compensation at all.
"If the Trustee succeeds here, the billions of dollars that the plan allocates for opioid abatement and compensation will evaporate, creditors and victims will be left with nothing, and lives literally will be lost," Garre said.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised questions about what effect a ruling in the case could have for other mass tort cases involving, for example, Johnson and Johnson, whose talcum powder is alleged to have caused cancer, or abuse claims against the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America.
The opioid epidemic has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over two decades, authorities say.
Purdue and other opioid makers were accused of encouraging free-wheeling prescription of their products through aggressive marketing tactics while hiding how addictive the drugs are.
Facing an avalanche of litigation, in 2021 Purdue pled guilty to three criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the case before June of next year.
Y.Aukaiv--AMWN