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Dallas Morning News - Sept. 1988
Woman Wins $9 Million in IUD Suit
(G.D. Searle Drug Co. also makes Aspartame Sweeteners)
(G.D. Searle Drug Co. also makes Aspartame Sweeteners)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. PAUL, Minn. - A federal jury Friday awarded a woman nearly $9 million in finding that G.D. Searle & Co. made intentional misrepresentations of the Copper~7 intrauterine device, leading to the woman's sterility.
The Jury also decided the company was negligent in its testing, but not in its design or manufacture, of the Copper-7 worn by Esther Kociemba.
Kociemba, 30, of Elk River, was awarded $7 million in punitive damages, $1 million for emotional distress and $750,000 for pain and disability.
The jury did not award damages to Kociemba's husband, William.
Jurors refused to comment on the verdict.
Searle attorney Paul Strain of Baltimore said the verdict will be appealed.
About 500 lawsuits have been filed over the Copper-7, the most widely used IUD in 'the United States' before it was withdrawn from the U.S. market, in January 1986, in the midst of the litigation.
Searle won 15 of the previous 18 cases to be decided, but Kociemba's attorneys' have said none of the previous cases included as many documents or as much deposition testimony as this one.
(submitted by: Mary Nash Stoddard/author Deadly Deception Story of Aspartame) http://marystod.blogspot.com/