State of West Virginia ex rel. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation v. The Honorable Alan D. Moats, Lead Presiding Judge, Opioid Litigation, Mass Litigation Panel, et al.; State of West Virginia ex rel. Johnson & Johnson v. The Honorable Alan D. Moats, Lead Presiding Judge, Opioid Litigation, Mass Litigation Panel, et al.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia consolidated two original prohibition proceedings arising from the State's opioid litigation. The court held that the Mass Litigation Panel did not clearly err in determining that the 2015 amendments to West Virginia's comparative fault statute did not apply to the public nuisance claims, but clearly erred by failing to protect defendants' right to have common issues tried to a jury. Petition No. 20-0751 was denied, while Petition No. 20-0694 was denied in part and granted in part.

Holdings

1. The Panel's determination that the public nuisance claims were not clearly legal claims for damages, and therefore were not clearly subject to the constitutional jury-trial right or the 2015 comparative-fault amendments, was not a clear-cut legal error warranting prohibition.
2. The court denied prohibition challenging the Panel's determination that the 2015 amendments did not apply to the public nuisance claims.
3. When public nuisance liability and the plaintiffs' legal claims share common issues, the jury must decide those common issues before the court conducts a nonjury trial of the equitable public nuisance claim.

Questions Presented

1. Whether prohibition should issue because the Panel clearly erred in finding that the public nuisance claims were equitable rather than legal claims for damages.
2. Whether the 2015 amendments to West Virginia's comparative-fault statute applied to the public nuisance claims and permitted consideration of nonparty fault.
3. Whether the Panel could conduct a nonjury trial on public nuisance liability before a jury decided issues common to the public nuisance claims and the plaintiffs' legal claims.

Disposition

other