Court Removes Last Barrier to Settling Dalkon Shield Suits

The Supreme Court today removed the last major hurdle to carrying out a $2.5-billion settlement for victims of the Dalkon Shield birth-control device.

The court, over one dissenting vote, rejected a challenge by about 650 of the thousands of women likely to share in a trust fund established by A. H. Robins Co., manufacturer of the intrauterine device.

Justice Byron R. White voted to hear arguments in the case, but four votes are needed to grant such review.

Marketed in the early 1970s, the device allegedly caused infertility, spontaneous abortions, pelvic inflammation and, in some cases, death.

Dalkon Shield sales ended in 1974, but the product was not actually recalled until 1984. A. H. Robins, based in Richmond, Va., created the trust fund as part of its 1985 reorganization under federal bankruptcy law.

The reorganization was sparked by thousands of lawsuits by women who had used the device.

The challenge acted on today contended that the settlement wrongly bars future lawsuits against A. H. Robins officials and others and that $2.5 billion may not be enough money to compensate all victims.

Lawyers representing about 18,000 women who are to share in the settlement urged the justices to reject the challenge.

“Greater than the risk of a shortfall is the immediate risk--a near certainty--that if the plan of reorganization is disapproved or even delayed . . . the plan will collapse,” those lawyers said.

Sharon Lutz, a Detroit lawyer representing some women who sued over alleged Dalkon Shield injuries, said compensation checks probably will not be received by anyone “for at least several months.”

“It likely will be the end of February or the first of March before individual women start getting paid,” Lutz said.

She said that a committee appointed by U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige may already have attached dollar figures to individual claims but that those assessments have not been released to lawyers for the women. “We hope those figures will be made available to us soon,” Lutz said.

Women who sued before the bankruptcy received an average of $150,000 apiece.

Under the bankruptcy reorganization plan, American Home Products Corp., a New York-based business, has agreed to buy A. H. Robins and fund the trust.

A. H. Robins stockholders will receive $700 million worth of American Home stock, making the acquisition price $3.2 billion.

But American Home Products’ conditional commitment to purchase A. H. Robins extends only to Dec. 31.