Frederick Mike Humeston lost his first Vioxx trial since the company hid crucial and damaging evidence from the jurors. New Jersy Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee did the right thing by granting him a retrial. Last week, Humeston got a favorable decision in his case.

Merck has now been directed by a jury to pay as much as $47.5 million to Humeston and his wife - $20 million in compensatory and $27.5 million in punitive damages.

Now don't expect the company to simply write him a check right away. The company will do anything possible to deny him (and all other Vioxx victims who have won their cases) any compensation for his heart attack and suffering. "We disagree with today's jury's verdict," said Hope Freiwald of Dechert LLP, a member of Merck's defense team. "The last time a jury considering the Humeston case had a chance to hear all the evidence at one time it found that Merck acted responsibly." Merck has objected to the structure of the trial because of the potential for jury confusion and bias.

When twice-decorated, Vietnam-war veteran Frederick "Mike" Humeston lost his Vioxx lawsuit against Merck, everyone was shocked by Merck's ferocious attack. Thanks to the foresight and wisdom of New Jursey Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee who was very troubled by the discovery of highly incriminating documents, a retrial was granted to give him another chance for justice.

Now a jury in Atlantic City has done justice to him. In a a big slap on the face of Merck attorneys and executives, who have tried to argue that the company did nothing wrong, the jury has decided that the company committed fraud by knowingly hiding the dangers of Vioxx. The decision implies that if Merck cared for the lives and health of its customers, Humeston would have never suffered a heart attack and would still be a healthy man.

When he took Vioxx for his arthritic pain, he did not realize that it would lead to a heart attack. So when Merck recalled Vioxx after the death of as many as 60,000 Americans (and an unknown number of people worldwide), he sued. Instead of admitting its guilt, the company used every dirty trick it could find, every document that it could hide, and every lie that it could come up with to deny him any compensation.

The other lawsuit that was tried simultaneously with this case, and brought by the estate of Brian Hermans, went in Merck's favor.

Rudolph Arrigale and Lawrence Appell from California are blaming Merck for knowing the dangers of the painkiller but not disclosing these to them, their physicians, and the FDA. They say that if they knew that the painkiller was deadly, they would have never taken it. In the trial, the jury got deadlocked over the issue of Merck's responsibility for communicating the risks and dangers.

Brian Panish, the plaintiff's attorney is asking for a retrial. Retrial in the case of Frederick "Mike" Humeston (Mark Lanier is his attorney again) is in progress in Atlantic City. The other new case being tried has been brought by Kathleen Hermans Messerschmidt (represented by Christopher Seeger), sister of Brian Hermans who died at the young age of 44 after taking Vioxx.

In a related development, a New Jersey court is also directing Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee to allow medical monitoring of patients who took the drug but did not suffer any cardiovascular complications right away. In another judgment, the Vioxx class action lawsuits are also going forward.

Vioxx litigation resumes

While recent months have meant setbacks to Vioxx victims and victories for Merck, in a favorable decision to the victims, a New Jersey appellate court has ruled against the company, potentially allowing some more class action lawsuits to go forward.

In related news, after a break for Christmas holidays, Vioxx litigation is resuming in the court of NJ Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee, who is presiding over most of the approximately 27,000 cases.

One plaintiff is Frederick "Mike" Humeston, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who first lost his case because Merck hid critical data about the dangers of the painkiller. He eventually won a retrial and the trial is now on.

The second lawsuit has been fined by the estate of Brian Hermans, who died of a heart attack at an early age of 44. While Merck has won some cases arguing that victims were already obese and had pre-existing cardiovascular complications, it may be somewhat harder to claim that in this case. Hermans was "a world-class racquetball player" whose autopsy showed a heart artery blocked by a large blood clot (something that Vioxx is known to do). The attorney taking on Merck is Mark Lanier, who also defended Carol Ernst.