Nevada Supremes Consider Pharmacy Liability for Painkiller Customer's Accident
The Nevada Supreme Court is considering whether pharmacies can be held liable for a fatal car accident caused by a woman who bought almost 4,500 doses of prescription painkillers in one year, spurring a warning to the drug stores.
The court heard oral arguments in March and is expected to issue its opinion by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Defendants in the case include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co.
The suit considers whether pharmacies must use information they receive to protect the public from customers who could cause harm. The plaintiffs are the family of the man who died, Gregory Sanchez Jr., and another man injured in the 2004 accident, Robert Martinez, as well as his family.
The driver was Patricia Copening, a receptionist in a doctor’s office, who hit the two men co-workers as they were pulled over by the side of the road, unloading packages from Sanchez’s van after its tire went flat. A blood test found hydrocodone in Copening’s system, but she said the only medicine she had taken was for a migraine, the story says. Copening served nine months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of reckless driving, according to the account.
“The chains are watching the Nevada case closely,” the story says. “Legally, it’s one thing for a pharmacy to be held liable for hurting an individual customer by, say, filling a prescription with the wrong drug. But drugstores worry Sanchez could open them to broader and more ambiguous responsibility with significant consequences to the industry.”
