United States Eighth Circuit

In a suit by Arkansas counties against manufacturers and distributors of products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine seeking recovery of costs stemming from the methamphetamine epidemic in the state, grant of defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings is affirmed where: 1) the circumstances connecting the sales of cold medication to the provision of government services were simply too attenuated to give rise to an implied contract between the manufacturers and county providers to state a cause of action for unjust enrichment; 2) common law nuisance and Arkansas statutory claims failed for lack of proximate causation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/05/2009
• Published 01/05/2009

Judges

• HANSEN, Circuit Judge., Before RILEY, HANSEN, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Brian Gene Brooks, argued, Greenbrier, AR, James J. Thompson, Jr., and Nolan E. Awbrew, Birmingham, AL, James A. Simpson, Jr., Searcy, AR, and John M. Belew and Steve Bell, Batesville, AR, on the brief, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• William F. Northrip, argued, Kansas City, MO, G. Spence Fricke, Little Rock, AR, on the brief, for appellees, Pfizer, Inc., Warner Lambert and Johnson & Johnson., Stephen E. Scheve and A. Kyle Harris, Houston, TX, and Blair Arnold, Batesville, AR, on the brief, for appellee, Perrigo Company.