So Carol Ernst's husband died of heart failure, nothing new. Millions of men die of heart failure every year. Its sad but true. Of course, like any red blooded American, Carol decided to sue somebody for losing her husband. Her suit against Merck ended a week and a half ago and a Texas jury award her $253 million.

That number will be reduced as the mental anguish award was higher than similar cases and Texas puts a cap on punitive damages at twice pecuniary damages (the money Mr. Ernst would have earned if his ticker hadn't given out). In the end, Ms. Ernst will probably only get between 18 and 25 mil. The kicker is there are about 4300 similar cases pending against Merck right now, most of them in NJ which doesn't cap punitive damages. Investment bankers are currently predicting that Merck's product liability for Vioxx is going to breach $50 BILLION as more suits are filed (attorneys get between a 33 and 50% contingent fee: $17 - 25 Billion). Not only that, Merck says it is going to contest every single case. Merck's attorney costs for this case alone were $3 million. So in the end the lawyers and plaintiffs are going to make about $65 Billion off of the Pharmaceutical giant...Jackpot.

So boys, either become a litigator or go out and get every kind of pill you can think of. The recent word on the street is that Viagara and the other ED drugs are causing blindness, so if you feel like you could part with your eyesight for $15 million and want to have a constant erection like the MIB, start popping those little blue pills