At its Nov. 19 meeting, the Huntington Town Board moved to take legal action against opioid manufacturers, distributors and sellers to recover the Town’s costs of fighting the opioid epidemic, and conducted other town business.
The Town Board approved the retention of Tate Grossman Kelly & Iaccarino, LLP (TGKI Law) to represent the legal interests of the town and its special districts. The firm has decades of collective experience with complex mass tort and multidistrict litigation representing dozens of municipalities seeking reimbursement for monies spent addressing the opioid crisis. It will commence an action against the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of opioids, and all other responsible parties, to recover all damages and costs incurred and to be incurred by the Town and its special districts in connection with the opioid crisis.
Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) and Councilman Eugene Cook (I) co-sponsored the resolution hiring the self-described opioid crisis recovery law firm.
“Given the specialized nature of this litigation, hiring TGKI Law will benefit the Town and our residents, not only from their expertise in this area, having represented other municipalities fighting the opioid crisis, including those on Long Island,” said Lupinacci, “but in sharing the costs for their expert consultants with those other municipalities, reducing the litigation costs for our residents, to ensure those who helped create this public health and safety crisis are made responsible for the costs of fighting it.”
The Town’s case will be part of all federal cases nationwide.
“It is extremely important that the Town of Huntington retain Tate Grossman Kelly & Iaccarino, LLP to handle this complex litigation to recover the financial costs of the opioid crisis, to the Huntington community against the manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of these opioid medications. Unfortunately, this lawsuit will not recover the harm and heartbreak this crisis has brought to the victims and their families who suffer or lost their life to opioids,” stated Cook. “This is a necessary first step to hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible for the monies spent on health care, substance abuse programs, public education, Narcan training and supplies and the criminal justice costs associated with the misuse of these prescription drugs.”
