Since 2015, local governments around the Country have been united in efforts seeking to hold the manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies of opioids responsible for the harms caused to their residents. The City of Vancouver joined this fight in 2019, filing suit against a number of manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies. That lawsuit was then transferred to the Northern District of Ohio as part of a nationwide multi-district litigation. The lawsuit has been pending there ever since.
The City is hopeful that in the coming months, some of these defendants will begin to enter settlement negotiations that will enable state and local governments to recover sums and utilize those amounts to abate the harms caused by opioids. The City's outside counsel has prepared a Memorandum of Understanding for all local jurisdictions to join, which will establish a baseline and default allocation system. The defendants have requested this type of allocation agreement to help spur settlement negotiations.
Under the proposed MOU, the City of Vancouver would ultimately recover roughly 1.73% of moneys allocated to local governments in the State of Washington, as outlined in Exhibit B to the MOU. For example, if a settlement with all defendants yielded a distribution of $173 million to Washington's local governments, the City of Vancouver would be entitled to roughly $3 million, all to be used for opioid abatement purposes as outlined in Exhibit A to the MOU.
The MOU does not specify an exact sum for which the City of Vancouver would accept as settlement, but rather established a default allocation structure to facilitate resolution and avoid unnecessary litigation with other Washington and SW Washington jurisdictions.