Manufacturer of Vioxx slapped with $253.4 million judgment

ANGLETON, Texas – A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable Friday for the death of a man who took the once-popular painkiller Vioxx, awarding his widow $253.4 million in damages in the first of thousands of lawsuits pending across the country

A seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated for 10 1/2 hours over two days before returning the verdict. Merck said it plans to appeal.

Carol Ernst began to cry when the verdict was read while her attorneys jumped up and shouted, “Amen!”

“Anyone who said they are too small town or won’t understand, they are crazy,” said Ernst’s lawyer, Mark Lanier. “They know truth and they know justice.”

Jurors in the semi-rural county rejected Merck’s argument that Robert Ernst, a Wal-Mart produce manager, died of clogged arteries rather than a Vioxx-induced heart attack that led to his fatal arrhythmia.