Hylla
The oft-postponed trial of what was originally the nation's first suit over an acne medication has been re-set again five months from now.
Madison County Circuit David Hylla, the suit's presiding judge, met with attorneys from plaintiff Jason Peipert and defendants Hoffman-LaRoche Inc., Roche Laboratories and Dr. Daniel Goran, on Tuesday. The hearing was to continue hammering out discovery issues in the case and also to set a new trial.
The group eventually settled on a new trial date of April 12, 2010.
While attorneys joked about starting trial Monday, Hylla was not inclined, he said. Due to two coming trials already on Hylla's calendar, the only time left for a trial this year is later in December, Hylla told the attorneys. And he was not going to schedule a trial near the Christmas holidays.
"The jurors would hang us all," Hylla joked.
The suit was scheduled for trial Oct. 19. That date was moved due to on-going discovery issues.
The 2003 suit began as a medical malpractice suit and has transformed into a combined medical malpractice and product liability case.
Peipert, of Godfrey, is suing Goran, of Edwardsville, and the makers of the acne medication Accutane for the drug's alleged role in his development of bowel disease.
Peipert's suit claims that Goran negligently prescribed the drug knowing it was difficult to manage in patients and that the drug's makers should have realized its causal relationship to bowel disease.
Peipert is represented John Papa.
Goran is represented by Jeffrey Glass.
Hoffman LaRoche and Roche Laboratories are represented by Bart Sullivan.
The case is Madison case number 03-L-2040.