A Houston attorney and law firm deny that a woman was damaged when her Yaz suit was dismissed after her former counsel failed to respond to a motion to dismiss the personal injury suit.
Defendants Robins Cloud LLP in Houston and attorney J. Robert Black denied liability in plaintiff Vernita Crowder’s complaint in their April 30 answer.
The defendants filed similar, but separate answers to the complaint through attorney Susan Dimond of Roberts Perryman PC in St. Louis.
Black individually argues that Crowder cannot state a claim for relief against him for legal malpractice because he left Robins Cloud in October 2013, prior to the alleged negligent conduct. He claims he left all files, including Crowder’s, with the firm when he left.
After leaving Robbins Cloud, Black founded Black Law PC in Houston.
Additionally, both defendants argue that Crowder’s claims are barred because she has not suffered any damages and because the sole proximate cause of any alleged damages was the plaintiff’s own conduct or the conduct of a third party.
The defendants argue that Crowder cannot prove that but for the defendants’ conduct she would have been successful in her Yaz litigation nor that proximity caused her alleged damages.
Robbins Cloud and Black also argue that Crowder’s alleged damages were sustained more than two-years before she filed her lawsuit. They add that she filed her legal malpractice complaint beyond the time permitted under the statute of limitations. The answer states that the time for bringing her cause of action expired in 2018.
Crowder filed separate responses to the defendants’ affirmative defenses on May 15 through attorney Robert Pavich of Pavich Law Group PC in Chicago.
She denies each and every allegation, specifically denying that the defendants are not liable or that she bore any fault contributing to her damages.
She also denies that the defendants are only severally liable.
Crowder, of Crittenden County, Ark., filed her legal malpractice complaint on March 7.
According to her complaint, Crowder was given a prescription for Yasmin, Ocella and Gianci (collectively Yaz) by her physician in April 2018. She claims she was unaware that there were defective qualities to the medication, causing her to suffer from physical pain, anguish and disfigurement.
Crowder had filed a lawsuit through Black against manufacturer Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc. She alleged the company engaged in unfair and deceptive marketing by purposefully misrepresenting, concealing, and omitting the fact that the consumption of Yaz would increase a patient’s risk of thrombosis, heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular complications. She alleged Bayer purposefully hid this fact from consumers.
Crowder’s suit was one of thousands consolidated for pretrial proceedings as part of the Yaz multidistrict litigation in the Southern District of Illinois. Black continued representing the plaintiff after the case had been consolidated in the MDL.
The MDL court appointed Roger Denton as liason counsel and Michael S. Burg, Michael London and Mark N. Niemeyer as interim lead counsel on Nov. 10, 2009. Despite the appointment of the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee to perform certain functions related to the MDL, Black retained core responsibilities relevant to Crowder’s case, including the task of responding to discovery directed toward the plaintiff and responding to dispositive motions, the suit states.
On Dec. 12, 2015, Bayer moved to dismiss with prejudice several cases, including Crowder’s case, after Black allegedly failed to conduct discovery during the time allotted.
The plaintiff was given 14 days to file an opposition to Bayer’s motion. However, she alleges Black failed to file any response.
As a result, former district judge David Herndon dismissed the case with prejudice on Jan. 11, 2016.
“Had defendants responded to Bayer’s motion to dismiss thereby preserving plaintiff’s claim, a settlement between Bayer and plaintiff would have been probable, as Bayer had previously settled thousands of claims similar to plaintiff’s.
“As a result of the defendants’ negligence in failing to respond to the motion to dismiss, plaintiff’s claim was dismissed and she lost all right to recover from Bayer for her injuries,” the suit states.
Crowder seeks unspecified damages, plus interest and court costs.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Chris Kolker set the case for jury trial on Dec. 16 at 9 a.m. He also scheduled a case management conference for Aug. 12 at 9 a.m.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 19-L-194