They couldn't do it without the jurors

Texas jurors awarded $253 million in the first ever verdict against Merck & Co. in a trial involving a death linked to its painkiller, Vioxx. Aside from the outrageous size of the verdict generally, things get even screwier. The jury awarded $24 million in actual damages. The largest component of actual damages is usually lost income- right or wrong, that's the way our legal system is supposed to work. The poor fellow that died was a 59 year old produce manager at Wal-Mart. Let's be generous and say that his ticker would have lasted 30 years without the Vioxx and that he would have worked 20 of those 30 years (to age 79). Now let's assume Wal-Mart pays way more than it does, say $100,000 a year and a discount rate equal to today's federal funds rate which is historically low. (A higher rate would make future wages worth less). The lost wage portion of actual damages would be $831,660.33 with those generous assumptions.

Needless to say, Merck will appeal.

(You can use this Net Present Value calculator to check the results.)