N.Y. Court Allows Suits on Injuries From DES

The state’s highest court today upheld New York’s landmark Toxic Torts Law, allowing thousands of people injured by exposure to the pregnancy drug DES and other chemicals to sue manufacturers.

Although the court’s decision came in a case focused on DES, it also sets precedent for thousands of New Yorkers suffering from exposure to asbestos, chlordane, tungsten chloride and polyvinyl chloride--the other chemicals named in the 1986 law.

The Court of Appeals’ decision came in a challenge to the 1986 law by the makers of DES, or diethylbestrol, a drug once marketed nationally to prevent miscarriages and later found to cause infertility in the children of women who took it.

The court said each DES manufacturer will have to pay damages caused by the drug--according to their share of the DES market. The ruling ensures that women injured by the drug can collect damages even if they do not know who made the exact pills taken by their mothers.

Chief Judge Sol Watchler, writing for the court, warned if a lawsuit does not name all DES manufacturers, the DES victim may not be able to collect 100% of the damages sought.

Paul Rheingold, a lawyer for some of the DES victims, hailed the ruling, saying, “The holding of constitutionality lets (the 500 women already suing) continue with their cases. If they can prove that these companies caused them harm, which is easy, they will get the damages they’re entitled to.”

The drug companies have said DES lawsuits could cost them millions of dollars.