Original verdict in Dr. James Brewer’s fraud case reinstated by California Court of Appeal
SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ellis George LLP announced that The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, has reversed a trial court order that reduced a jury verdict against Impact Biomedicines and instead reinstated the original $5,020,000 award. Impact Biomedicines, a division of Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, and Impact Biomedicine’s founder and owner, Dr. John Hood, must pay San Diego physician and Alzheimer’s researcher James Brewer M.D., Ph.D., more than $1 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages in a fraudulent concealment case filed in 2019.
Dr. Brewer, chair of the neurology department at UC San Diego, was represented by Christopher W. Arledge and Courtney L. Mitchell, both of Ellis George LLP, and Peter Afrasiabi of One LLP.
At trial in the San Diego County Superior Court, a 12-member jury awarded Dr. Brewer more than $5 million, finding that Impact Biomedicines and Dr. Hood had defrauded Dr. Brewer as part of Impact Biomedicines’ effort to end an FDA-mandated clinical hold and get Impact Biomedicines’ experimental cancer drug approved. The jury accepted Dr. Brewer’s argument that Impact Biomedicines and Dr. Hood had misled the FDA about the work Dr. Brewer had done for them and the conclusions he had reached and then concealed its false statements to the FDA from Dr. Brewer.
Later, the trial court agreed that Dr. Brewer had proven his fraud case but reduced the damages number significantly. At the time, Mr. Arledge said he disagreed with the court’s decision to reduce the damages and predicted that the trial court’s order would be reversed on appeal. Today it was. According to the Court of Appeal’s opinion, “We conclude that substantial evidence supports the jury’s findings on liability and damages, and the jury’s award of punitive damages was not constitutionally excessive…”
“This was a hard-fought win against a very well-funded opponent and one of the largest, most-prestigious law firms in the country. Now a jury, a trial court, and an appellate court have all agreed that Dr. Brewer proved his fraud claim, and we’re grateful to the Court of Appeal for recognizing that the trial court’s reduction in Dr. Brewer’s damages was a legal error,” said Mr. Arledge. “This is an important win for Dr. Brewer and for patients who must be able to rely on the FDA drug-approval process.”
Impact Biomedicines was represented by Colleen C. Smith, John T. Ryan, Andrew R. Gray, and Melissa Arbus Sherry, all of Latham & Watkins.
James Brewer v Impact Biomedicines, et al. Superior Court No. 37-2019-00067876-CU-CO-CTL
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