The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday agreed to review the $6 billion opioid settlement Purdue Pharma had reached following a Biden administration appeal, according to Bloomberg.
The Sackler family, which owns OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, reached a deal in May establishing blanket immunity for all current and future civil claims involving the company’s role in the opioid crisis. The Supreme Court has paused the plan, which would have had the family pay $6 billion to those suing and would require the Sacklers to relinquish ownership of the company in a bankruptcy reorganization deal, due to an emergency request from the Biden administration about the immunity granted to the family, according to Bloomberg. (RELATED: World’s ‘Most Dangerous Drug Trafficker’ Hit With 45-Year Prison Sentence)
“The parties are directed to brief and argue the following question: Whether the Bankruptcy Code authorizes a court to approve, as part of a plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, a release that extinguishes claims held by nondebtors against nondebtor third parties, without the claimants’ consent,” the document granting the review from the Supreme Court said.
Over no public dissents, #SCOTUS grants the Biden administration’s application to prevent the Second Circuit’s approval of the Purdue Pharma/Sackler bankruptcy reorganization plan from going into effect—and agrees to take up the government’s appeal of that decision this December: pic.twitter.com/fMTATmfTGW
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 10, 2023
The Justice Department sought to have the deal reviewed under the objection that federal bankruptcy courts lack the power to insulate the Sackler family from lawsuits since they have not filed for protection themselves, according to Bloomberg.
“We are confident in the legality of our nearly universally supported Plan of Reorganization, and optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree,” Purdue Pharma said in a statement given to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Even so, we are disappointed that the U.S. Trustee, despite having no concrete interest in the outcome of this process, has been able to single-handedly delay billions of dollars in value that should be put to use for victim compensation, opioid crisis abatement for communities across the country, and overdose rescue medicines.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment to the DCNF.
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