1-Year Statute on DES Suits Is Tossed Out

SAN FRANCISCO — In a boost to women suing DES manufacturers, a state Court of Appeal ruled here Friday that a statute requiring lawsuits be filed within one year does not apply to cases involving the suspected cancer-causing drug.

The ruling is the first in California to reach that conclusion. More than 100 suits are pending in the state over the synthetic estrogen, DES (diethulstilbestrol), which was given to pregnant women to avoid miscarriages.

The drug was taken off the market in 1971. However, women whose mothers took DES claim in their suits that they contracted cervical and other types of cancer.

“This ruling is very important for DES prosecutions and all drug cases,” said attorney LeRoy Hersh, who represented Georgiann Kensinger in her suit against several DES manufacturers, among them Abbott Laboratories.

Hersh noted that many women like Kensinger became aware that their problems were caused by DES in the mid-1970s but were unaware until more recently that they had cause to sue.

The appellate court reinstated Kensinger’s suit after a San Francisco trial judge ruled that the statute of limitations for such suits had passed. In an opinion by Justice William Newsom, the appeal court said the one-year statute of limitations begins only after women discover that the drug’s manufacturers were negligent.