Eagle Pass City Council Approves Law Firms to Represent Taxpayers in Opioids Litigation 

By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2017

The City of Eagle Pass, Texas City Council approved to hire the law firms of Luis Roberto Vera, Jr. and Associates of San Antonio, Texas and Napoli Shkolnik PLLC of New York, New York to represent and prosecute any legal claims against manufacturers and distributors of opioids arising out of manufacturers’ and distributors’ fraudulent and negligent marketing and distribution of opioids at their regular meeting held on Tuesday, November 7, 2017.

The City of Eagle Pass has hired these two law firms on a contingency fee basis, that is, that the City of Eagle Pass will not be liable for any legal fees and costs to these two law firms unless they recover a monetary settlement or judgment against many national opioids manufacturers and distributors. The Eagle Pass City Council approved a contingency fee agreement with the two law firms subject to final negotiation of the written agreement by City Attorney Langley & Banack, Inc. and City Manager Arturo B. Rodriguez.  The law firms are proposing a 25% contingency fee agreement of any gross recovery, but the final agreement will be negotiated between the City’s representatives and the two law firms.

The City of Eagle Pass becomes one of the first, if not the first, municipalities in Texas to approve filing a lawsuit against national pharmaceutical companies and distributors that market and distribute opioids to residents of Eagle Pass through allege fraudulent and negligent schemes.

The City of Eagle Pass now joins Maverick County, Texas in approving the filing of a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies and distributors for the opioids epidemic affecting the community and nation.  Maverick County Commissioners Court similarly approved to hire the same two law firms as the City of Eagle Pass earlier on October 10, 2017 and subsequently filed a lawsuit against 24 national pharmaceutical companies in the 293rd Judicial District Court in Maverick County, Texas on October 27, 2017.

Among the 24 pharmaceutical companies and distributors sued by Maverick County in state district court are Purdue Pharma L.P., Purdue Pharma Inc., The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Cephalon, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Allergan PLC, Actavis, Inc., Watson Laboratories, Inc., Insys Therapeutics, Inc., Actavis LLC, Endo Health Solutions, Inc., McKesson Corporation, Walsh Distribution, LLC , Cardinal Health, Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Russell Portenoy, Perry Fine, Scott Fishman, and Lynn Webster.

With the hiring of the same two law firms as Maverick County for the opioids litigation, the City of Eagle Pass is expected to join immediately the same lawsuit in state district court as Maverick County.  The City of Eagle Pass will seek compensatory damages in an amount sufficient to fairly and completely compensate the City of Eagle Pass for all damages, treble damages, penalties, costs, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, interest, cost and disbursements, and such other further relief to which it may be entitled to at law or in equity.

With Maverick County filing its opioids litigation lawsuit in the state district court in Maverick County, Texas, the Maverick County District Clerk’s Office is going to be inundated with legal filings and documents like never before that will more than likely require additional personnel have to hired to handle the voluminous legal filings and proceedings.