To view original article click here
JACKSONVILLE, AL (WBRC) – The Jacksonville Police Department is investigating what they say appears to be a murder-suicide that happened after noon on Wednesday.
Officers and paramedics responded to a residence on Wildwood Lane after a call to 911 in reference to a possible suicide attempt.
When they arrived at the scene, responders found 68-year-old Elias Joubran suffering a gunshot wound. Police say it appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Joubran’s wife – 50-year-old Sheila Joubran – was also shot. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say Ms. Joubran was in the middle of moving out of the residence when the shooting occurred. A moving crew was at the residence when the incident happened. They told police there was no fighting between the two until they heard gunshots and discovered the two in the living room of the residence.
To see complete original transcript click here
Forest Laboratories, LLC v. Kevin J. Feheley — (Justia Law)
Rel: October 25, 2019
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advancesheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741((334)229-0649), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter. SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA OCTOBER TERM, 2019 20 Forest Laboratories, LLC v. Kevin J. Feheley, Sr., as administrator and personal representative of the Estate of Sheila Clay Joubran, deceased, and as guardian and conservator of Kevin J.Feheley, Jr., an incapacitated person. Appeal from Calhoun Circuit Court(CV-17-900399.80)
Facts and Procedural History
Lexapro is the brand name of a prescription drug used to treat depression. It appears that Forest manufactured and marketed Lexapro and that Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“FPI”)sold and distributed Lexapro. Escitalopram is the generic form of Lexapro. On December 29, 2015, Elias Joubran’s physician prescribed Lexapro for Elias’s depression. Elias’s prescription was filled with generic escitalopram that was manufactured and sold by a company other than Forest. On December 30, 2015, Elias entered the house belonging to him and his wife, Sheila Clay Joubran; he shot and killed Sheila and then shot and killed himself.
On July 13, 2017, Kevin J. Feheley, Sr., as administrator and personal representative of Sheila’s estate and as guardian and conservator of Kevin J. Feheley, Jr., an incapacitated person,2filed suit in the Calhoun Circuit Court against Mary Joubran, in her capacity as the personal representative of Elias’s estate, Forest, FPI, and fictitiously named defendants. The complaint alleged that, at the time of the murder/suicide, Elias “was under prescription for, and was ingesting, under certain physicians’ prescription, certain pharmaceuticals, including those pharmaceuticals manufactured by the defendants as described more particularly herein.”
The complaint went on to allege that “Forest’s Lexapro enhanced, enabled and aggravated [Elias’s] depression and violent behaviors.” The complaint alleged, in part:”Defendants [FPI] and [Forest] (collectively hereinafter, ‘Forest’) were severally, the marketer, promoter, seller, manufacturer, distributor, and entity which did manufacture, create, design, test, label, package, distribute, market, sell, advertise, fail to warn, and otherwise handle and distribute in commerce, the products, Lexapro 10 mg tablets.”
After including extensive allegations regarding Forest’s marketing activities, Feheley alleged: “The foregoing and similar activity has continued in an effort to induce physicians to prescribe Lexapro and to increase sales to persons such as [Elias Joubran] as a matter of specific intent by the Defendants. Defendants suppressed the true facts as to the dangers of Lexapro, while at the same time, communicating to physicians and to the body of physicians generally that Lexapro was safe and effective with the specific intent to enlarge and enhance the market for Lexapro and withthe proximate resultthat the prescriptions of Lexapro were in fact greatly increased and enhanced,the drug much more generally accepted by the prescribing physician public, and that customers such as Elias Joubran would be prescribed Lexapro by physicians who were not aware of all of the true dangers of the drug including:
- That the drug was particularly dangerous for patients who were already experiencing unusual agitation and upset,”
- That the drug was particularly dangerous during the time period shortly after its use was commenced by a patient, and shortly after the dose was increased, in either case, a greater risk for suicide and violence was and is enhanced by the drug,
- That the drug heightened the risk of increased agitation, suicidal behaviors, violent behaviors, and patients acting on thoughts that would otherwise be mediated or restrained by the patient, but in the presence of this drug would,instead, be acted upon. Defendants misrepresented that the increased risk of suicide was essentially, solely, a product of younger age whenin fact [D]efendants knew or should have known that the risk was related to factors that occurred more commonly,but not at all uniquely, with younger age, and these factors existed in Elias Joubran and other vulnerable populations who were targeted consumers of the drugs, and,
- On information and belief, Plaintiff avers that neither Elias Joubran, nor his prescribing physician were aware of the extent and true nature of the facts which were misrepresentedand or suppressed by Defendants and neither discovered the true facts at any time before the prescription and the acts described elsewhere in this Complaint, allwith the proximate result and consequence that the killing of [Sheila Joubran] and the suicide of Elias Joubran took place as elsewhere described herein.”
In an affidavit, Feheley asserted that he is Sheila’s ex-husband; that he is the father of Kevin J. Feheley, Jr.; that Kevin J. Feheley, Jr., is Sheila’s son and sole surviving heir; and that Kevin J. Feheley, Jr., is incapacitated.