Healey's case against Sacklers to proceed in Mass.

Courtesy Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey

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By State House News Service

A Massachusetts judge on Tuesday denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that Attorney General Maura Healey brought against the Sackler family, which controls Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma.

Healey sued the Sacklers and Purdue in June 2018, alleging that they "engaged in a deadly, deceptive scheme to sell opioids in Massachusetts" and profited from the drug epidemic they helped create.

Last month, about two dozen states agreed to a multi-billion dollar settlement with the company, but Healey vowed to continue to pursue her own case against the Sacklers and Purdue in state court even as bankruptcy proceedings take place in a New York court.

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders on Tuesday ruled that the case can proceed in Massachusetts courts. Sanders last month denied Purdue Pharma’s motion to dismiss Healey's lawsuit.

Healey said the judge's "decision confirms that Purdue and the Sacklers are subject to state law and accountable to the people of Massachusetts. The public deserves to know the whole truth about the company’s role in this epidemic, and families deserve justice."

The Sacklers argued that they should not be sued in Massachusetts courts "because they did not personally participate in conduct that was directed at Massachusetts." Sanders, nominated to the bench by Gov. Bill Weld and elevated to Superior Court by Acting Gov. Jane Swift, determined that the jurisdiction is "reasonable" and that "notions of fair play and substantial justice are satisfied."

"Here, the Commonwealth, which has brought this suit, has a significant interest in remediating the opioid crisis, which, no one disputes, has exacted a heavy toll in Massachusetts," Sanders wrote in her 33-page ruling. "On the other hand, the individual defendants make no particularized argument that litigating this case in Massachusetts would pose a hardship or other burden on them. Indeed, the Purdue headquarters are in Connecticut, a short distance away. The individual defendants also are persons of significant means."