|
ANGLETON, Texas (AP) - A Texas appeals court Friday denied a request from Merck & Co. lawyers to block a pathologist's potentially damaging testimony that the death of the plaintiff's husband was probably brought on by a heart attack.
The New Jersey pharmaceutical giant then appealed that decision to the Texas Supreme Court, Merck legal spokesman Kent Jarrell said.
In the nation's first civil trial over the recalled painkiller Vioxx, state District Judge Ben Hardin ruled late Thursday that jurors could hear testimony from the pathologist, who said she thought Robert Ernst's 2001 death from arrhythmia was more than likely caused by a heart attack.
|