Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995 17:38:54 -0500
From: Chris Hagin <chagin@atlanta.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS <GLB-NEWS@brownvm.brown.edu>

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995

National briefs: Court rejects hemophiliacs' bid to sue over AIDS

A federal appeals court has ruled that thousands of hemophiliacs who contracted
the AIDS virus from blood-clotting medicine may not join in a lawsuit against
drug companies, partly because it might bankrupt the industry.

In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the court said a federal judge who consolidated cases
into a class action exceeded ``the permissible bounds of discretion.'' Such a
class action would allow one jury to ``hold the fate of an industry in the palm
of its hand,'' and could ``hurl the industry into bankruptcy,'' Judge Richard
Posner wrote for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago.

David Shrager, lead attorney for the hemophiliacs, vowed Saturday to seek a
rehearing next week before the full seven-member appeals court.