Cardinal Health’s Opioid Loss Coverage Case Belongs in Ohio

Cardinal Health Inc.'s suit to force its insurer to defend or pay for its defense of cases alleging it caused or contributed to the nationwide opioid epidemic must be tried in an Ohio state court, the Sixth Circuit said Wednesday.

The potential for conflicting state-federal court decisions on National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh’s duty to defend the drug distributor weighs against keeping the case in federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said.

Wholesale drug distributor Cardinal Health is a defendant in many opioid-related lawsuits that are now consolidated in multi-district litigation pending in ...