Court Upholds Tylenol Award

A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a jury’s decision to award more than $8 million to a man whose liver was damaged by a combination of wine and Extra-Strength Tylenol.

McNeil-P.P.C. Inc., makers of the acetaminophen pain reliever, claimed Antonio Benedi failed to prove the Tylenol caused his injuries.

Benedi, who regularly consumed three to four glasses of wine a night, was admitted to a hospital on Feb. 10, 1993, with liver and kidney failure. He had been taking Extra-Strength Tylenol in regular doses for about five days.

He underwent an emergency liver transplant. His doctors said the liver damage was caused by acetaminophen toxicity, and he sued McNeil in U.S. District Court in Alexandria in March 1994.

A jury awarded him the money seven months later.

Experts testified that a warning about the possible danger of combining alcohol and acetaminophen should have been placed on the Tylenol label in the mid-1980s, when articles on the subject began appearing in medical journals.