U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal of $10 Million Punitive Damages Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court on May 16 declined to hear a drug company's appeal of a $10 million punitive damage award in a Rezulin wrongful death lawsuit. Warner-Lambert Co., et al. v. Mary Rose Wakefield. No. 04-1047 (U.S. Sup. Ct.).

Michael Wakefield, 41, died from multiple organ failure on March 15, 1999. He had been admitted to the hospital with complete hepatic failure. Wakefield was prescribed Rezulin (troglitazone) for diabetes approximately one month prior to his death.

His wife, Mary Rose Wakefield, and mother, Mary Louise Wakefield, sued Warner-Lambert in 2001 in Oklahoma's Tulsa County District Court, …