A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal will hear arguments on May 7 in a battle between Attorney General Ashley Moody and numerous hospital districts and school boards about opioid-epidemic legal settlements.
The Tallahassee-based appeals court issued a notice Tuesday scheduling the arguments.
The hospital districts and school boards appealed last year after Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled that Moody had the authority to enter a series of settlements with the pharmaceutical industry that effectively trumped lawsuits pursued by the hospital districts and school boards.
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Moody’s office entered into a series of settlements with companies, each including a “release” of claims filed by local governments.
Some settlements resulted from multi-state litigation, while others were the result of a lawsuit that the attorney general’s office filed in Pasco County.
However, the hospital districts and school boards argued that Moody did not have the authority to release their claims.
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