Abbott Laboratories’ 33.4 million dollars sanctions award imposed in a trademark infringement lawsuit survived as the Second Circuit found a medical product wholesaler wasn’t entitled now to a jury trial to determine the amount.
H&H Wholesale Services Inc., its CEO, and his wife ‘waived their right’ to a trial over the case-ending sanctions amount when the company agreed to a damages inquest instead, a summary order filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said. The panel affirmed the lower court’s conclusion that lesser sanctions would be ‘ineffective’ given repeated discovery abuses and misrepresentations to the court, the order said.
H&H’s appeal challenged a New York federal court’s March 2023 damages award imposed after an entry of a default judgment. The dispute is an offshoot of Abbott’s trademark infringement litigation launched nine years ago.
H&H was among scores of pharmacies, distributors, importers, and online sellers Abbott—alongside affiliates Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. and Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corp.— sued in 2015 saying they infringed Abbott’s trademark rights by selling the international version of its diabetes test strips in the US, the court documents show.
Five years into litigation, the Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted Abbott’s request for case-ending sanctions against H&H, CEO Howard Goldman, and his wife and H&H employee Lori Goldman for “repeatedly withholding responsive documents” and giving “misleading and inconsistent testimony,” Thursday’s order said. The court then awarded Abbott $33.4 million, plus post-judgment interest.
The appellants “did not once argue that they had the right to a jury trial on damages,” the panel’s order said. “Instead, they argued that the damages inquest should follow any jury trial for the remaining defendants.”
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