©2024 The News Service of Florida
A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal will hear arguments May 7 in a battle between Attorney General Ashley Moody and numerous hospital districts and school boards about opioid-epidemic legal settlements.
The Tallahassee-based appeals court issued a notice Tuesday scheduling the arguments.
The hospital districts and school boards appealed last year after Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled that Moody had the authority to enter a series of settlements with the pharmaceutical industry that effectively trumped lawsuits pursued by the hospital districts and school boards.
Moody’s office entered into a series of settlements with companies — with each of the settlements including a “release” of claims filed by local governments.
Some settlements resulted from multi-state litigation, while others came as a result of a lawsuit that the attorney general’s office filed in Pasco County.
But the hospital districts and school boards argued that Moody did not have the authority to release their claims.
