CVS Pharmacy, Inc., CVS Rx Services, Inc., CVS Indiana, L.L.C., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Albertson's LLC, and Acme Markets, Inc. v. The City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Summary

The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed an interlocutory order overruling CVS and Albertsons' preliminary objections to Philadelphia's public nuisance claim concerning the alleged distribution and dispensing of prescription opioids. The court held that the City's allegations of opioid-related impacts on public streets, public spaces, public safety, and the community at large sufficiently pleaded interference with a public right. The court distinguished Atlantic Richfield Co. v. County of Montgomery and relinquished jurisdiction.

Holdings

1. The City sufficiently pleaded an interference with a public right. Allegations that the opioid epidemic led to the obstruction and contamination of public streets, a public drug encampment, increased crime, and collective harm to community safety alleged injury to interests common to the public rather than merely aggregated individual injuries.
2. At the pleading stage, the pharmacies' assertion that they could not be liable for another person's use or misuse of a lawful product did not defeat the claim because the City alleged unlawful or regulation-violating distribution practices and resulting interference with public health and safety.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the City sufficiently pleaded a violation of a public right, as required for a public nuisance claim, by alleging that the pharmacies' distribution and dispensing of prescription opioids contributed to communal harms involving public health, public safety, public streets, and public spaces.
2. Whether the pharmacies' argument that the City alleged only an aggregation of individual harms required dismissal at the demurrer stage.

Disposition

affirmed