By Cara Salvatore

Law360 (December 3, 2020, 9:15 PM EST) -- A West Virginia federal court on Thursday delayed a planned January opioid trial after the three major U.S. drug distributors argued the worsening coronavirus pandemic made it too dangerous, but the judge hinted the rescheduled trial could be partially remote.

The case by West Virginia's Cabell County and its county seat, Huntington, is expected to be a dramatic test of allegations that some of the nation's largest corporations wantonly distributed prescription narcotics and unleashed a devastating plague of addiction.

The three distributors — AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. — argued for a delay recently given the pandemic's tightening grip. The governments responded Tuesday that some parts of the trial, like openings and even testimony, could happen remotely.

U.S. District Judge David Faber said Thursday pushing back the proceeding "until further order of the court" is the best course.

The judge suggested he's not inclined to go down the path of remote live testimony but is open to ideas about other remote segments. "Plaintiffs are hereby invited to submit a proposal regarding the extent to which their case-in-chief could be presented remotely without receiving live testimony by remote means," he said.

The governments had recently floated the idea of remote openings, followed by a period of asynchronously sending depositions and documents to the judge for review at his convenience.

Another opioid bellwether, set to take place in Ohio against major pharmacy chains, has been pushed back to May, according to the distributors. That one will be held before the Ohio federal judge overseeing the national opioid MDL.

Three lead lawyers for the plaintiffs said jointly in an emailed statement Thursday, "COVID-19 is ravaging our country, and so is the opioid crisis. Both require resources and dedication now to help those in need. While a traditional trial may not be possible, progress can still be made. … We will work with the court in every way possible to continue pushing the litigation ahead for the sake of suffering communities nationwide."

Representatives for the defendants were not immediately available for comment.

Cabell County is represented by Paul Farrell Jr. of Farrell Law, Anthony Majestro of Powell & Majestro PLLC and Michael Woelfel of Woelfel & Woelfel LLP. Huntington is represented by Anne McGinness Kearse, Joseph Rice, Linda Singer and David Ackerman of Motley Rice LLC and Charles Webb of Webb Law Centre PLLC.

McKesson is represented by Timothy Hester, Laura Wu, Christian Pistilli, Andrew Stanner and Paul Schmidt of Covington & Burling LLP and Jeffrey Wakefield and Jason Holliday of Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso PLLC. AmerisourceBergen is represented by Gretchen Callas of Jackson Kelly PLLC and Robert Nicholas and Shannon McClure of Reed Smith LLP. Cardinal Health is represented by Enu Mainigi, F. Lane Heard III, Ashley Hardin and Jennifer Wicht of Williams & Connolly LLP and Michael Carey, Steven Ruby, Raymond Franks II and David Pogue of Carey Douglas Kessler & Ruby PLLC.

The cases are City of Huntington v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. et al., case number 3:17-cv-01362, and Cabell County Commission v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. et al., case number 3:17-cv-01665, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The MDL is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, case number 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

--Additional reporting by Rachel Scharf, Al Barbarino and Jeff Overley. Editing by Michael Watanabe.

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