Ruling Lets ‘DES Daughters’ Seek Damages

ALBANY, N.Y. — The state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that women left infertile by a pregnancy drug before it was banned 18 years ago can seek damages against drug manufacturers.

In declaring New York’s toxic tort law of 1986 constitutional as it applied to the so-called “DES daughters,” the Court of Appeals cleared the way for thousands of workers suffering from exposure to asbestos, chlordane, tungsten chloride and polyvinyl chloride--other chemicals named in the 1986 law--to also seek damages.

The court said manufacturers of DES, or diethylstilbestrol, which caused cancer and infertility in the children of mothers who took it before it was banned in 1971, must share the costs of damage awards according to their percentage of the national DES market.

Drug manufacturers said the ruling will slow research and development on new drugs.

The decision added to a nationwide patchwork of opinions on the validity of compensation lawsuits for illness caused by exposure to a dangerous drug or chemical.