OTS - Hearing Date of Thalidomide Lawsuit in Germany announced
2017. February 13. 09:00
Germany, 13 February 2017. (APA/ OTS) - 60 years after the market
launch of Contergan (active ingredient: thalidomide), the greatest
pharmaceutical scandal in the Federal Republic of Germany continues
to boil. A lawsuit will be heard in the Bonn Regional Court at
12:00 hrs on 15.2.2017 that is more explosive than appears at first
sight.
The Contergan victim Andreas Meyer, who was born without arms
or legs and is confined to a wheelchair, is suing the former member
of the Management Board of the Contergan Foundation, Attorney Karl
Schucht, for injunction and rectification.
In a letter to the members of the Family Affairs Committee of
the German Federal Parliament, Schucht had asserted that Meyer, as
an expert witness at a public hearing of the Committee, had
publicly stated various untruths about events connected with the
Contergan Foundation.
Meyer had said among other things that for 30 years the
Contergan (thalidomide) manufacturer Grünenthal GmbH had had access
to the medical files of the Contergan victims in the Contergan
Foundation. In addition, Grünenthal had also paid the Foundation's
medical experts.
In his letter, Schucht asserted to the contrary that Grünenthal
had at no time had access to the medical files of the Contergan
victims, but that the files were always kept by the Contergan
Foundation. Further, he asserted that the experts of the Medical
Commission were always paid from the funds of the Contergan
Foundation.
Why so explosive? Because if Meyer wins the lawsuit it will
mean that not only Schucht had told untruths to the members of
Parliament. No, the Federal Government had also told untruths to
Parliament.
Because the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, which has been
responsible for supervision of the Contergan Foundation since 1972,
stated in a reply to a Minor Interpellation by the Parliamentary
Group Die Linke that Schucht's letter also expressed the opinion of
the Federal Government.
A pivotal question, according to Meyer, is the double role of
Attorney Herbert Wartensleben who has also been invited as a
witness by the Bonn Regional Court. From 1972 until the end of
2003, Wartensleben was not only Chairman of the Medical Commission
of the Contergan Foundation, which judges whether a victim is or is
not damaged by Contergan and also evaluates the degree of damage -
on the basis of which the amount of the Contergan pension is
assessed, for example. Since the Contergan trial, Wartensleben
acted again and again as the legal representative of Grünenthal in
cases relating to Contergan; most recently in 2007 in the lawsuits
concerning the two-part ARD feature film "Eine einzige Tablette"
(One single tablet).
"The case deals with the question of whether the Contergan
Foundation was, or perhaps still is, an undercover subsidiary of
Grünenthal under the eyes of the Federal Government," said Meyer.
Meyer will be represented by Prof. Dr. Jan Hegemann from the
law firm Raue Rechtsanwälte LLP in Berlin. Attorney Prof. Dr. Jan
Hegemann already successfully represented Meyer in 2009 in the case
of Meyer's call to boycott the products of Dalli-Werke, Mäurer &
Wirtz and 4711 - companies belonging to Grünenthal's owner.
Attorney Karl Schucht will be represented by Attorneys Gernot Lehr
and Tobias Würkert LLM from the Bonn office of the law firm Redeker
Sellner Dahs. For Meyer, this is significant. The founder of that
law firm, Prof. Dr. Hans Dahs senior who died in 1972, represented
the late owner of Grünenthal, Dr. Hermann Wirtz senior, in the
Contergan trial.
Place and date of the court hearing
Date: 15.2.2017
Time: 12:00 hrs
Place: Bonn Regional Court, Wilhelmstraße 21, 53111 Bonn
Room: Courtroom S. 0.15 (Saalbau)
You can find further important information at the following
link:
http://www.gruenenthal-opfer.de/Materials_Meyer_vs_Schucht_15_2_2017
Contact:
Federation of Thalidomide Sufferers and Grünenthal Victims
c/o Mr Andreas Meyer (Chairman)
Dohmengasse 7 , 50829 Köln
Email: bcg-brd-dachverband@gmx.de
Website: www.Grünenthal-opfer.de
Mobile: +49 (0)172 / 2905974
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Az OTS internetes oldalán található hírek, közlemények, fotók a
forrásmegjelöléssel (OTS) szabadon és korlátozás nélkül
felhasználhatók. Továbbközlés esetén a közzétevő köteles az átvett
anyagot tartalmának torzítása nélkül, félreérthetőséget,
rosszindulatú következtetéseket kizáró, az eredeti
szövegkörnyezetnek megfelelő módon feldolgozni és megjelentetni.
Az OTS hírek nem képezik az MTI hírkiadás részét, az MTI által
szó szerint továbbított tartalomért minden esetben a beadó a
felelős.
© Copyright MTI nonprofit Zrt.
Az OTS szolgáltatással kapcsolatban további információt a
(06-1) 441-9050 telefonszámon vagy a ots@mti.hu elektronikus
levelező címen kaphat.