A wrongful death suit, arising out of the deaths of a father and son at an air show in Shelby County, has been filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

Closing arguments in the wrongful death lawsuit Schwaller v. Merck and Co. are expected Monday with a jury verdict probable by the end of the week.

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a 2004 jury verdict awarding the city of Columbus, a south Columbus businessman and an Oakland Park resident damages totaling more than $20.7 million from continental Carbon Co. of Phenix City and its parent company, China Synthetic Rubber Corp.

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a 2004 jury verdict awarding the city of Columbus, a south Columbus businessman and an Oakland Park resident damages totaling more than $20.7 million from Continental Carbon Co. of Phenix City and its parent company, China Synthetic Rubber Corp.

Merck's defense witness Jerome Cohen, M.D., a St. Louis cardiologist, said his ties to pharmaceutical companies did not influence his opinion that Vioxx did not cause Patricia Schwaller's death.

The trial pits Frank Schwaller, whose 52-year-old wife Patricia Schwaller died after using Vioxx, against the drug's maker Merck Pharmaceutical.

Fresh off a federal court defeat in December, Birchfield is laying out for Madison County jurors pretty much the same argument he has in the past, that Vioxx caused heart attacks and that "Merck worked hard to keep the truth quiet."

Whether the maker of Vioxx withheld information about the drug's risks was the point of opening statements Wednesday in a crowded Madison County courtroom.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck ignored warnings and tried to cover up risks associated with its blockbuster painkiller Vioxx, a lawyer Wednesday told the jurors in the case of a Granite City woman who died suddenly of a heart attack after spending 20 months on the drug.

Merck & Co. put profits ahead of consumer safety by hustling a blockbuster arthritis medicine to market, then routinely denied the drug's potentially lethal health risk.