More than 2,100 suits by users of the acne drug Accutane who developed Crohn’s disease have been reinstated after an appeals court ruled that expert testimony on behalf of plaintiffs was improperly excluded by the trial judge.
Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson exceeded his role as a gatekeeper when he concluded that plaintiffs’ experts on gastroenterology and epidemiology were using accepted scientific methods to analyze the evidence in the case, the appeals court said. The decision also said the judge incorrectly determined the credibility of the testimony by plaintiffs’ experts. The appeals court reversed an order barring expert testimony by the plaintiffs’ experts and another order dismissing 2,174 cases.
