Knox County recognizes employees, considers joining lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

Tue, 02/19/2019 - 1:30pm

    ROCKLAND – Knox County Commissioners convened for their regularly scheduled meeting at the Knox County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 12. For the fifth year Knox County gave thanks and appreciation to its employees who have served for five or more years with its Knox County Empoyee Recognition Event which took place before the regular commission meeting.

    Those employees receiving awards were:

    Daniel Beardsley, Corrections Officer, five years of service.

    Arthur Smith, Patrol Deputy, five years of service.

    Matthew Elwell, Patrol Deputy, 10 years of service.

    Michael Dean, System Administrator, 10 years of service.

    Andrew Hart, County Administrator, 10 years of service.

    Anne Orne, Assistant Shift Supervisor, 10 years of service.

    John Abbott, Food Service Specialist, 10 years of service.

    Ralph Cline III, Maintenance Mechanic, 10 years of service.

    Jeffrey Northgraves, Airport Manager, 15 years of service.

    Timothy McFarland, Assistant Programs/Classification Coordinator, 15 years of service.

    Lynn Talbot, Victim and Witness Advocate, 20 years of service.

    Stephanie Gibbs, Dispatch Supervisor, 20 years of service.

    Justin Twitchell, Detective, 20 years of service.

    Lisa Cottrel, Register of Deeds, 25 years of service.

    Cynthia Gardner, Programs/Classification Coordinator, 30 years of service.

     

    Knox County to join lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

    The commissioners considered an act to adopt a resolution to allow Knox County to join a lawsuit against opiate drug companies and to allow the county administrator to engage the services of Napoli Sckolnik LLP and Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette LLP, for the purposes of pursuing legal claims in the recovery of costs incurred by Knox County due to the opioid crisis.

    Adam R. Lee, attorney representing TMBF, said his firm is suing a number of opioid manufacturers on behalf of counties and towns.

    “We currently represent 11 counties and nine different municipalities,” he said. “All those cases are already in suit. We file each of them individually in county courts around the state. Thus far they have all been removed to the federal court. The federal court has yet to answer the question of if that’s the proper place for them.”

    Lee said it is their contention they belong in the state courts and the manufacturers claim they belong in federal courts.

    “All the cases are in federal court and have been sent to the northern section of Ohio,” he said. “The purpose of that is to reach a global settlement. That would pay out all the individual cases at the same time.”

    Lee said there are approximately 1,500 cases now in that court from across the nation.

    “A judge is picking cases to go to trial to set a precedent to help further a global settlement,” he said. “It’s not a class action suit. Each county has its own particular set of circumstances and settlements. We don’t combine cases. It’s Portland’s case, it’s Lewiston’s case, it’s Cumberland County’s case, etc….”

    Lee said Knox County’s case would be unique in that it would be its own case brought against 28 or so defendants.

    “You would have your own individual case with its own individual set of damages,” he said. “The federal court is saying we have individual cases and individual damages, but lets come to a global settlement for efficiency’s sake.”

    Lee said the county’s only expense would be a 25 percent contingency fee of the payout should the court rule for the county.

    “You would only pay out if you were awarded a settlement.” he said. “We don’t know what your part of a global settlement would be. Knox’s population is X and your part of the settlement will be Y.”

    To participate the Knox County Commissioners would need to authorize the county administrator to complete a work sheet and submit it to the law firm. At that point would Knox County enter into the lawsuit.

    The commission passed 3-0 a resolution to proceed with the suit.