Recent headlines herald a Texas woman who was awarded $253 million in a lawsuit against Merck in relation to a death attributed to Vioxx. She’s highly unlikely to actually receive anywhere near that because Merck will appeal and higher courts will reduce the award.
The press always makes a big deal out of these initial awards because they seem to like big numbers. The follow-on stories don’t make headlines because that would make it seem like they overreacted to the original story.
So, I am interested in what kind of cash money people actually receive in the end in these high-profile suits. I’m sure some have gotten a few million, but has any individual person or family ever actually received a ridiculous amount like $100 million?
It wasn’t fully recovered, but Pennzoil won a $10.5 billion award against Texaco in 1985 which wasn’t reduced on appeal.
Texas law requires that defendants must post bond for the judgement amount before appealing, but no one was willing to write the bond and the US Supreme Court decided that Texaco didn’t have a claim to relief in federal court. The judgement was finally reduced to $3 billion as a bankruptcy settlement, not as the result of an appeal.
Yes, I’m interested in large awards to individuals (or families), not corporations or class actions where the award is in the millions, but the people involved end up with half a dozen 50 cents off coupons.