Thalidomide cases should progress, High Court rules

The High Court has made directions as to how cases by a number of people seeking compensation arising from use of the Thalidomide drug should be progressed.

Twenty six cases are involved, 16 of which are already before the court, and lawyers for the plaintiffs have sought directions on how the cases should proceed. Some are urgent because of the medical conditions of people involved, the court heard.

Thalidomide, launched as a sedative in Germany in 1957, was first reported in 1961 as being linked to deformities in unborn children after it was given to their pregnant mothers.

The German manufacturers of the drug, the Irish distributors and the State, who are all being sued, claim the cases are out of time and cannot proceed as a result of the statute of limitations.

Directions

It places a time limit of generally between two and six years depending on the type of case and the time of a person’s knowledge of an alleged wrong.

Manufacturers Grunenthal GmbH, distributors TP Whelehan Son & Co, and the Ministers for Health and Environment all deny the claims.

Grunenthal also applied to Mr Justice Seamus Noonan for directions over whether the issue of the cases being statute-barred should be determined first.

The judge directed the cases should proceed in accordance with a schedule put forward by the plaintiffs.

He declined to make an order at this stage in relation to the statute-barred issue but said it was open to the defendants to renew that application at a later stage.

He did not want the “disabled and impecunious plaintiffs” to be left fighting the case on two different fronts which would be disproportionate to any saving in court time in costs as had been argued by the company defendants as a reason for dealing with the statute point first.