Punitive damages are fair game for plaintiffs bringing claims against Novartis Pharmaceuticals for a drug made to manage metastatic bone cancer that they claim caused permanent disfigurement, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak of the Western District of Pennsylvania applied choice of law analyses from two other jurisdictions to determine that Pennsylvania law would apply to the issue of punitive damages rather than New Jersey law. Pennsylvania law would allow for the plaintiffs to seek punitives while New Jersey law wouldn’t.
