Merck wins appeal of $7.75 million Vioxx case in Texas

SAN ANTONIO The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals has overturned a $7.75 million verdict against Merck involving its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, according to Reuters. The court found that evidence presented at trial failed to prove the medicine caused the heart attack suffered by the plaintiff’s husband.

A jury in April of 2006 found that the drug was responsible for the death of 71-year-old Leonel Garza and awarded his wife, Felicia Garza, $7 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. But, due to limits under Texas law, the punitive damages were later knocked down to $750,000. Merck though, had appeared to have a strong case at the trial as Garza had taken Vioxx for less than a month and had had a previous heart attack.

This might have been one of the reasons why the appeals court unanimously changed the verdict. According to Justice Sandee Bryan Marion, “Even viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, we conclude the evidence is legally insufficient to support a finding that plaintiffs negated, with reasonable certainty, Mr. Garza’s preexisting heart condition as a plausible cause of his death.”