The trial of Dolin v. Smithkline Beecham Corp. (also known as GlaxoSmithKline or GSK) began in March of 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Plaintiff Wendy Dolin had filed the lawsuit against GSK in 2012 over the alleged paroxetine-induced wrongful death of her late husband, Stewart Dolin, who was a partner at the law firm Reed Smith and who had committed suicide while taking Paxil as prescribed.
As leading attorneys with unparalleled experience in antidepressant defect litigation – including antidepressant birth defects, medication-induced violence, and generic Paxil suicide claims – our shareholders Michael Baum and Brent Wisner were asked to represent Wendy Dolin in this important matter for her family. At Baum Hedlund, we were honored to give her the representation that she deserved, ultimately securing $3 million from GSK to account for the Dolin family’s suffering and losses.
Learn more about how we can help others with generic Paxil and paroxetine suicide claims. To schedule a consultation with our Los Angeles team, call us at (310) 207-3233 or contact us online.
Stewart Dolin first began taking paroxetine in July of 2010. Paxil, the brand name version of generic paroxetine, was researched, developed, manufactured and marketed by GSK, and GSK created (and was responsible for maintaining the accuracy of) the Paxil label.
In the early afternoon on July 15, 2010, Stewart Dolin walked to a Chicago Transit Authority station shortly after a business lunch with a colleague. A woman at the station noticed that Mr. Dolin was pacing and appeared to be agitated as he looked in the direction of an approaching train that was not yet in sight. When the moving train appeared, the woman observed Mr. Dolin leap in front of the train, where he was struck. Ultimately, Mr. Dolin was pronounced dead from the injuries he suffered due to the collision and his contact with the electrified track after the collision.
The Paxil warning label, which by law must be copied by generic manufacturers, states that the risk of suicidality does not extend past the age of 24, even though GSK’s clinical trials showed that taking Paxil increases the risk of suicidality by nearly 700%. A ruling by Judge James B. Zagel of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, permitted Ms. Dolin to proceed with an action against GSK for negligence, products liability, and fraud, even though GSK is not the manufacturer of the specific generic version of Paxil that led to Mr. Dolin’s death. The lawsuit was filed on July 9, 2012.
In the original 2012 complaint, the plaintiff charged GSK with the following:
In 2014, a federal judge in Chicago denied most of defendant GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) motion for summary judgment in Wendy Dolin’s wrongful death lawsuit. The judge rejected GSK’s argument that the defendant’s common law negligence claim was, in essence, a product liability claim, and he supported the plaintiff’s assertion that GSK was negligent in connection with paroxetine’s design and drug labeling.
In his ruling, Judge Zagel wrote:
“… it was entirely foreseeable that negligence on the part of GSK with respect to paroxetine’s design and warning label could result in injury to a consumer ingesting a subsequent generic version of the drug.”
The fact that GSK did not make the generic drug that Mr. Dolin took, said Judge Zagel, “does not lessen the likelihood that GSK’s allegedly tortious conduct would lead to the Plaintiff’s injury.” Later in his ruling, the judge restated this point, writing, “The negligence here is extrinsic to the Paxil manufacturing process and, if true, could proximately cause injury to consumers of all versions of paroxetine, including the generic version that Mr. Dolin ingested.” Several other arguments by GSK that on their face appeared to be little more than efforts to confuse the issue were also found by the judge to be without merit.
After our $3 million victory in her suit against GSK, Ms. Dolin started a unique non-profit organization called MISSD (The Medication-Induced Suicide Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin) dedicated to honoring the memory of Stewart and other victims of akathisia by raising awareness. Her work in this area has led to a groundswell of support and awareness of the risks associated with SSRIs.
At Baum Hedlund, we have the longest track-record handling SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant litigation in the country, having successfully handled thousands of individual antidepressant-related injury and death cases involving suicide, withdrawal syndrome, and birth defects, since 1990. Our firm has testified before the FDA on several occasions and met with several members of Congress about the adverse reactions and risks concerning SSRI antidepressants. Our work has been acknowledged as helping prompt the FDA to require black box suicidality warnings on all antidepressant labels, and we also uncovered the SSRI cardio-birth defect connection, as well as pharmaceutical industry manipulation of the scientific literature through ghostwriting.
In addition to antidepressant litigation, our firm litigates personal injury, wrongful death and product liability cases and has a long track-record of success, winning numerous multi-million dollar jury awards and over $4 billion for our clients. In short, we become known for improving public safety by holding wrongdoers accountable when they act carelessly, resulting in harm to others.
Contact Baum Hedlund at (310) 207-3233 or submit our online form. We serve clients throughout Los Angeles, California, and the United States.
The following Dolin v. GSK Paxil trial exhibits have been admitted as evidence and are available to the public:
Documents labeled ‘PTX’ are Plaintiff exhibits, ‘DX’ are Defense exhibits and ‘JX’ are joint Plaintiff/Defense exhibits.
"Wisner Baum gave exceptional attention to all aspects of the case, detailed inquiry, and tenacious overview of all the information submitted. The paralegals are efficient and diligent. I was completely surprised to find an empathic personal message to take care of my own health during the challenging time of being a full-time caretaker.*"
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
