
Finding for the plaintiffs, the jury awarded Allen $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $9 billion in punitive damages.
Takeda’s move comes as no surprise, given the amount the jury awarded the plaintiffs. Arguing that the “multi-billion dollar punitive damages awards are unconstitutional and so excessive as to per se demonstrate passion and prejudice,” Takeda filed a motion for a new trial or, if a new trial is not granted, to have the punitive damages dropped to being no more than the amount of the compensatory damages. The company also argued that it is entitled to a new trial “because the Court committed prejudicial errors in its evidentiary rulings and its instructions to the jury.”
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The motion also argues that when Takeda destroyed documents it was not under a legal duty to preserve those documents. The trial judge found that as of 2002 Takeda had a legal duty to preserve documents, but Takeda argues that the legal duty did not exist until the summer of 2011.
Takeda also argues that there is no evidence that it destroyed the documents in bad faith, contending that it had no reasonable anticipation of bladder cancer lawsuits until 2011.
“Takeda denies that it deleted files with the intent of shielding those files from discovery in litigation,” the motion states.