Vioxx jury awards millions to couple
A New Jersey man was awarded $13.5 million from Vioxx maker Merck & Co., including $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday after a jury found that the company knowingly withheld data about the pain drug’s risks from federal regulators.
The state court jury had given John McDarby, 77, and his wife, Irma, $4.5 million last Wednesday, saying Merck’s conduct showed a “wanton and willful disregard of another’s rights.” A week ago, the same panel found that Merck failed to warn of the medicine’s risks and committed consumer fraud in misrepresenting them to prescribing physicians.
Merck, which pulled the blockbuster drug off the market in 2004 after a study linked it to increased risk of heart attack and stroke, said it would appeal Tuesday’s verdict.
Boston
Soft-drink makers sued over benzene
Two soft-drink companies were sued Tuesday by parents complaining that there might be cancer-causing benzene in kids’ drinks.
Attorneys filed class-action lawsuits against the companies in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee, Fla. They accused Polar Beverages Inc. and In Zone Brands Inc. of not taking steps to keep benzene from forming in their beverages.
Benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia, can form in soft drinks containing two ingredients: Vitamin C and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Sailors accused of phony marriages
Eight sailors were charged Tuesday with arranging sham marriages to Polish and Romanian women to help the women obtain U.S. citizenship and to collect bigger military housing allowances for themselves.
An investigation by Naval Criminal Investigative Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that none of the women lived with the sailors they married.
In all, the eight sailors received $35,000 in fraudulent basic housing allowance payments, investigators said.
Los Angeles
Social workers visit Britney, K-Fed
The 6-month-old son of singer Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline fell from a highchair, prompting social workers to visit the couple’s Malibu home over the weekend, sources close to the situation said Tuesday.
On Friday, Spears became concerned that her son might have a head injury and took him to an emergency room, the sources said. That is when the Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services was notified.
Martin Singer, Spears’ attorney, said Tuesday that there was an automatic report by the hospital to child welfare officials, as required by state law, and “DCFS immediately responded and determined there was no problem and no reason to open a formal investigation.”