Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Musician

The U.S. Supreme Court has finally ruled on a case involving the Vermont musician Diana Levine.  As we wrote about in November, 2008, Levine had her right arm amputated after a botched injection of the drug Phenergen in 2000.  Levine sued drug maker Wyeth, claiming that the warning labels on Phenergen did not sufficiently warn of the risks associated with it’s use.  Levine won her case and was awarded $6.7 million in punitive damages, but Wyeth appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Wyeth, along with the support of the former Bush administration, argued that the negligent warning label on Phenergen was supplied by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – the federal regulating agency of all pharmaceutical drugs – and if the FDA said it was ok, then it was ok.

The former Bush administration believed that pharmaceutical companies should be protected from consumer lawsuits at the state level to shield against the extortionate cost of what they felt were often frivolous cases filed by greedy consumers.  The Supreme Court argued this week that, in the past, many important drug-related risks have been exposed by consumer lawsuits, and that pharmacuetical companies, and not just the FDA, should not be held responsible for their labeling.  The ruling in favor of musician Diana Levine was upheld.

News coverage is available at npr.org (Court Rules for Musician in Drug Case) and the story in Levine’s own words is available at this link: A Small Town Musician Becomes the Standard Bearer for Victims of Drug Company Negligence.

Diana Levine is the cofounder of the Vermont-based Rebop Records and a working musician for over 30 years.  She has a new CD released under her maiden name, Diana Winn, on Rebop’s sister label, Miss Demeanor Records.