It seems the bad news just won’t stop for the lawyers associated with “the” fen Phen settlement. Attorneys Gallion & Cunningham will be in prison for a long time, 25 and 20 years respectively. Attorney Melbourne Mills may be the “man” who is free but at a cost to his reputation of having to claim he was too drunk to know what the other lawyers were doing (and thus acquitted). A young lawyer, David Helmers, lost his license to practice law while following the instructions of attorney Gallion in meeting with clients.
Photo of Stan Chesley from the Cincinnati.com archives.
And now, the “Master of Disaster” attorney Stan Chesley who was found not criminally culpable has been held civilly liable after Boone Circuit Court Judge James Schrand found Chesley jointly and severally liable to the 440 plaintiffs from the fen phen case.
From a story by Andrew Wolfson with the Courier-Journal –
In an eight-page order entered Aug. 1, Judge James Schrand found Chesley jointly and severally liable for the $42 million judgment previously awarded against William J. Gallion, Shirley Cunningham Jr. and Melbourne Mills.
Wolfson further reported that “Only $17 million of that amount has been collected, leaving Chesley on the hook for $25 million, said Lexington lawyer Angela Ford, who represents most of the 440 plaintiffs whose $200 million settlement was plundered by the lawyers.”
For more on this story, go to: “Lawyer found liable in $42M fen-phen judgment” published in the Courier Journal on August 5, 2014.
This story has also gained national attention in American Bar Association story by Martha Neil, “Judge says ex-attorney must help pay $42M judgment to plaintiffs in fen-phen litigation” also dated August 5, 2014.
Good news for the horse that Gallion and Cunningham purchased for $57,000 and sold for a reported $3.5 million ended up “a two-time Horse of the Year who retired as North America’s all-time leading money earner, led the class of inductees into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame” as reported in a story from NortherJersey.com on Aug. 9, 2014. See, “Horse racing: Curlin at head of Hall of Fame class”
For more on the “ownership” of Curlin and its impact to the fen phen claimants, see “Who Owns Curlin? Fen-Phen Lawyers or Fen-Phen Plaintiffs?” in an older story in the Wall Street Journal.
