A lawyer for Merck & Co. has asked the Court to dismiss a State Court class ction pending in Madison Count, Illinois.
Suite was filed a week after Merck removed its arthritis pain medication from the market for safety reasons on September 30, 2004. The class action complaint alleges that the the drug maker deceived consumers into believing Vioxx was a superior product over others and that it hid the drug's dangerous side effects. Interestingly, the suit seeks to recover no more than $75,000 minus costs and interest per class member.
Merck's lawyer claims that allowing the suit to proceed would encourage others to file lawsuits to circumvent adverse rulings or force settlements.
Ball claims that Merck will suffer substantial prejudice if it is forced to simultaneously litigate identical claims in multiple courts by facing the risk of inconsistent rulings and judgments.
