In January 2019, a Connecticut state court dismissed one of many lawsuits against opioid manufacturers because the local governments did not have standing to sue. Specifically, the court held the cities were indirectly harmed by the opioid epidemic, and therefore did not have standing to sue.

Local governments, with the aid of contingency fee private attorneys, have brought numerous lawsuits like the Connecticut case against drug manufacturers throughout the country, including in Wisconsin. To date, there are roughly 1,000 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers filed by local governments. A recent report from the American Tort Reform Association outlined the rise in recent years of private plaintiff attorneys bringing these types of lawsuits against businesses on behalf of local governments.

Citing a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Holmes v. Securities Investor Protection Corp., the Connecticut court held that it must consider three factors to determine whether plaintiffs have direct enough cause to sue:

• How indirect is the injury;
• How complicated is it to decide who gets what money;
• Whether directly injured parties could sue instead.

The court then analyzed the local governments’ lawsuit against the many drug companies and determined that they had not met the three factors.

First, the court determined that alleged injury to the local governments caused by opioid addiction was too attenuated and any injury to the local governments was too indirect.

Second, the court held that deciding who should get the money would require the court to engage in “rank speculation,” and noted that each city is completely different in terms of how the opioid epidemic has affected their respective services.

Third, the court held that there are clearly other directly injured parties, those who became addicted to prescription drugs who could, and have, sued the drug companies. The court said the lawsuit by the cities is not about the victims, but instead is about obtaining money for local government services.

Based on these factors, the court dismissed the lawsuit brought by the local governments. The court decision is City of New Haven v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et al.