Mrs. Jewell Schenebeck and Russell Schenebeck v. Sterling Drug, Inc.

Summary

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict awarding damages to Mrs. Jewell Schenebeck for blindness allegedly caused by prolonged use of Sterling Drug's Aralen. Applying Arkansas law, the court held that sufficient evidence supported submitting to the jury whether Sterling breached its continuing duty to warn physicians and whether the failure to warn proximately caused the injury. The court also held that the evidence did not conclusively establish that permanent eye damage occurred more than three years before the complaint, so the statute-of-limitations issue was properly submitted to the jury.

Holdings

1. The evidence was sufficient to submit proximate cause to the jury. A drug manufacturer has a continuing duty to warn physicians of dangers associated with an ethical drug, keep abreast of relevant scientific developments, and communicate newly discovered side effects; the jury could find that Sterling's delayed warning proximately caused or contributed to the blindness.
2. The statute-of-limitations issue was properly submitted to the jury because the evidence did not conclusively establish that permanent chloroquine retinopathy occurred before December 9, 1963. In a slowly developing injury case, accrual may be tied to the occurrence of actual harm rather than merely the earlier negligent act.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence supported submitting to the jury whether Sterling Drug's failure to timely warn physicians about the risk of permanent eye damage from prolonged Aralen therapy proximately caused or contributed to Jewell Schenebeck's blindness.
2. Whether the Schenebecks' negligence action was barred by Arkansas's three-year statute of limitations because the cause of action accrued before December 9, 1963.

Disposition

affirmed