ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
GOOD INVESTMENTS, low administrative costs and a good litigation record mean an extra $800 million in the pockets of women injured by the birth control device.
The Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust mailed $800 million in bonuses Thursday to about 47,000 women who were injured by the intrauterine birth control device.
Mike Sheppard, executive director of the trust, said the money was part of what remains of $2.3 billion set aside in 1988 to pay claims. Once the bonuses are paid, $600 million will remain in the trust to pay 5,000 remaining claims.
``This is something that was not anticipated five or six years ago,'' Sheppard said of the surplus. He said the trust wound up with extra money because of ``good investment results, low administrative costs and a good record in litigation.''
The vast majority of the 190,000 claimants accepted the trust's settlement offers, Sheppard said. Forty claimants went to court, and 27 of them lost. The 13 who won judgments ended up with 26 percent less money than the trust originally offered, Sheppard said.
Trustees announced in October that they would pay a 60 percent dividend to the most seriously injured claimants - those who received settlements of more than $725.
Individual bonus checks ranged from about $500 to more than $1 million, Sheppard said. The average was about $17,000.
U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige ruled in March that lawyers representing the claimants would get no more than 10 percent of any bonuses awarded to their clients. Some lawyers received as much as 50 percent of the previous payments, Sheppard said.
The Dalkon Shield was pulled from the U.S. market in 1974 after its design was blamed for thousands of painful infections, spontaneous abortions, hysterectomies and at least 18 deaths among its 3 million users.
A.H. Robins & Co., the Richmond company that manufactured the device, filed for bankruptcy in 1985 after about 325,000 women filed lawsuits over the Dalkon Shield.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB