This story was updated Monday at 8:25 p.m.
The city of St. Albans has filed a federal lawsuit against a host of national manufacturers and distributors of opioid prescriptions drugs, alleging the deceptive marketing of the painkiller has led to a crisis of addiction.
The lawsuit joins hundreds around the country brought by local municipalities against opioid manufacturers and distributors in recent years, though it is the first filed by a Vermont city or town.
The state of Vermont has filed separate lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors in recent months that are pending, including one against Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical giant and producer of the opioid painkiller OxyContin.
Among the attorneys listed in the St. Albans lawsuit as representing the northern Vermont city are out-of-state law firms across the country who have joined together in bringing similar lawsuits on behalf of municipalities around the nation.
The more than 300-page lawsuit brought by St. Albans was filed Monday in federal court in Vermont, naming dozens of defendants, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Insys Therapeutics, Walgreens, CVS Health Care, Rite Aid, and Walmart.
“The distributors and manufacturers intentionally and/or unlawfully breached their legal duties under federal and state law to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opiates,” the lawsuit stated.
“(St. Albans) brings this civil action,” according to the lawsuit, “to eliminate the hazard to public health and safety caused by the opioid epidemic, to abate the nuisance caused thereby, and to recoup monies that have been spent and will be spent because of Defendants’ false, deceptive and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids.”
St. Albans City Manager Dominic Cloud could not immediately be reached Monday for comment. Vanessa Branon Kittell, an attorney in St. Albans and listed among the lawyers representing the city, also could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the lawsuit, in Franklin County, where St. Albans is located, at least 40 people have died from opiate-related causes from 2013 to 2018.
Other towns in Vermont have had discussions about following a similar path as St. Albans and filing a lawsuit against national opioid manufacturers and distributors.
For example, the southern Vermont town of Bennington considered taking such action earlier this year. Stuart Hurd, Bennington town manager, said Monday that while the town’s Selectboard had discussed it in January, no action was ever taken to move forward on it.
“We really haven’t taken that next step,” Hurd said. “The conversations have kind of slowly faded.”
A national firm that had talked to Bennington officials said it would represent the town with no upfront cost to the community. However, Hurd said, that firm would then received 25% of any damages awarded, with the remaining 75% going to the town.
St. Albans Mayor Tim Smith, reached Monday afternoon, said he was declining comment on the filing on the lawsuit until after a City Council meeting set for later Monday evening. He said the matter would be discussed at the meeting and he wanted to make sure everyone was on the “same page.”
As to the city’s payment arrangement with the law firms, Smith also declined to comment, saying he didn’t have the information in front of him.
Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan said Monday that the lawsuit brought by St. Albans is the first to be brought by a municipality in Vermont.
Asked if he expected other municipalities to bring such lawsuits, Donovan replied that he wasn’t sure. “This is such a fluid, dynamic process,” he added.
Other Vermont communities have discussed the matter with the Attorney General’s Office, Donovan said.
He said most of the hundreds of cases brought by municipalities and county governments around the country have been consolidated in a federal court in Ohio, terming it “multidistrict litigation.”
Donovan said that’s what he expects will happen to the lawsuit brought by St. Albans.
“I don’t think it’s going to impact the state’s case at all,” he said, which is pending in state court in Chittenden County.
“Municipalities should do what they think is best for their constituents,” Donovan said. “We’re going to focus on our job and focus on our lawsuits, and we’re going to focus any potential recovery back on to the state.”
