Carl B. Stokes Federal Court House Building in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

About 60 lawyers in Cleveland hammered out a last-minute settlement on the eve of the first jury trial over the opioid crisis arriving bleary-eyed on what would have been opening statements on Monday.

"It was a late night," said Paul Hanly of New York's Simmons Hanly Conroy, outside the courtroom after the judge dismissed the case on Monday morning in light of the settlement. He negotiated the deal with Joe Rice, of Motley Rice, and Paul Farrell of Greene Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel in Huntington, West Virginia. All three are co-lead counsel of the multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis.

The $260 million settlement includes $215 million in cash from three of the nation's largest distributors of opioid pharmaceuticals—McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp.—and $20 million from the sole manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, paid out in lump sums over 18 months. Teva also will provide $25 million in treatment pills, delivered over three years.

Walgreens, which did not settle, could go to trial next year, Rice said on Monday.

The trial before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in the Northern District of Ohio was supposed to be a bellwether for more than 2,600 lawsuits brought by cities, counties, states and other governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors. Two Ohio counties, Cuyahoga and Summit, were the plaintiffs.

Lawyers, media and spectators turned out before sunrise to attend the trial, filling the courtroom and two overflow rooms.

Before the trial was set to begin, Polster asked the lawyers to go into his chambers. When he returned, he thanked the "best lawyers in the country" who spent "a lot of work" on picking a jury last week. He said he would dismiss the claims of the Ohio counties against the settling defendants and sever Walgreens from the case. Walgreens now joins several other defendant companies that plan to go to trial against both Ohio counties at a later date. Polster has set no trial date for that case.

It was a disappointing end to those who sought to watch the trial and a planned performance by plaintiffs attorney W. Mark Lanier, who said he was prepared to do a "kicker opening."

But the settlement, lawyers and county officials said, provided cash to two counties in a state among the most hard hit from the opioid crisis.

"The proposed settlement will make significant progress to abate the epidemic by providing resources for and applying funds directly to necessary opioid-recovery programs," wrote Rice, Farrell and Hanly on behalf of the plaintiffs' executive committee in the opioid multidistrict litigation. "Throughout this process, Summit and Cuyahoga Counties have tirelessly investigated, litigated, and prepared for the bellwether trial that would have begun today if not for this agreement. In doing so, the communities revealed facts about the roles of the opioid industry that created and fueled the opioid epidemic."

They said that although the trial didn't happen, discovery revealed new facts about the opioid crisis.

"Additionally, through the discovery process, we learned that this country's pharmacy system has played a greater role in the opioid epidemic than previously realized," they wrote. "Cuyahoga and Summit will continue to litigate against pharmacy defendants to further understand the industry's failings and potential wrongdoing."

Outside the courthouse after the settlement's announcement, Rice said lawyers were in a "war room" in the U.S. Post Office building across from the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Cleveland, finalizing last-minute details of a deal until 1 a.m. on Monday. He said negotiations took place with the defendants by phone.

When asked about how much of the settlement would go to attorney fees, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said the fees would be held in an escrow account based on their contractual agreement with the two Ohio counties, which provides 25%, but that the fees would not come from the settlement fund. Neither he nor Rice gave dollar figures.

Meanwhile, Lanier said he was in his own "war room" at the Ritz-Carlton with the trial team, which included other lawyers from his firm, as well as Don Migliori of Motley Rice and Hunter Shkolnik of New York's Napoli Shkolnik, who were planning to make arguments to the jury. Lanier said Peter Weinberger, of Cleveland's Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber, who serves as liaison counsel in the multidistrict litigation, was his "right-hand man."

The trial team was going through 150 slides for the opening when they kept getting interrupted by phone calls from Rice with updates on settlement talks going on across the street.

When asked why a settlement with the two Ohio counties did not happen sooner, Lanier replied: "As bizarre as it sounds, every dollar makes a difference. There are people who will die from an opioid death today."

"It's worth staying awake until 1 a.m. in the morning," Lanier said.

The settlement comes after talks over a possible global settlement worth $48 billion broke down on Friday. That settlement, which had the support of some state attorneys general, who were part of the talks, would have resolved all the opioid lawsuits across the nation. In court, Polster said he was with the lawyers and attorneys general until 7:40 p.m. that day trying to reach a deal.

"I want these discussions to continue," Polster said on Monday.

But outside the courthouse on Monday, many lawyers and county officials said the global settlement wasn't enough actual cash and it wasn't soon enough, allowing the defendants to pay over several years.

"There should be a global settlement, but it's got to be fair and it's got to be now," Rice said. "They wanted to pay less, and we wanted them to pay more."

"We still want a global settlement," Rice said. "We're a long way from being through."

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$260M settlement reached to avoid key opioid trial

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