backOn April 13, 2026, King & Spalding secured a significant victory for Boehringer Ingelheim (Boehringer) when Judge Francis Jones of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware granted summary judgment in all Zantac cases filed on or before December 1, 2025. This order followed a landmark ruling from the Delaware Supreme Court last July excluding all of Plaintiffs’ general-causation experts under the Daubert standard (reversing the trial court), and further successful argument before Judge Jones denying Plaintiffs’ request to re-open discovery so they could serve new or amended expert reports.
In the April 13th opinion, Judge Jones wrote: “Having found that general causation is a required element of each of the Plaintiffs’ prima facia case and that Plaintiffs have not demonstrated general causation, summary judgment must be granted in favor of the Defendants.” The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments that any decision should apply only to 300 claimants in the bellwether pool, instead ruling that it applied to all cases filed by December 1, 2025, per the terms of earlier Case Management Orders negotiated and agreed upon by all parties
This order thus disposes of more than 60,000 cases, including more than 40,000 naming Boehringer Ingelheim as a defendant.
King & Spalding has been serving as Boehringer’s national counsel for all federal and state claims in litigation over allegations that the antacid Zantac is associated with an increased risk of cancer.
The King & Spalding team includes Andy Bayman, Rob Friedman, Greg Ruehlmann, Julia Zousmer, Eva Canaan, Paul Mezzina, Aaron Parks, Allie Bennett, and Corinne Nabors.