I’m not sure what the longest-running drug liability case is, but I suspect that the case of Mary Gunderson is right up there.

Mary Gunderson gave birth to her second son in 1993 and was given Parlodel to inhibit lactation since she wasn’t going to breast feed. Parlodel was made by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp., now Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. After some back-and-forth with the FDA, the Sandoz withdrew the drug.

A few days later, Mary developed a severe headache and pain down her back. She went to bed and died during the night. The medical examiner said death was due to a seizure associated with Parlodel.

Mary’s husband, Ronald, acting for himself and the couple’s two young sons, sued in Kentucky state court and in 2004 they were awarded $6 million for the loss of parental consortium, $1.8 million for the loss of services and earnings power and $11.2 million in punitive damages. Sandoz appealed and in 2005 the state appeals court affirmed the compensatory damages but remanded the punitive award for a new trial in light of a subsequent state supreme court punitives ruling.

Then Sandoz appealed again, and last month — three years after the intermediate appeal — the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed. Which means that unless both sides settle, a punitives-only case has to be tried and the appeals process could begin all over again.

One of my grad school profs once told me “the wheels of justice turns slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.” Indeed, my experience has been that drug and medical device litigation, especially the mass tort variety, can last up to five years. But I have to wonder: how slow is too slow? And if the product in Mary Gunderson’s case is exceedingly fine, what, exactly, is it after 14 years?

Using case history as a guide, it will be 2012 before this case draws to a close. Mary Gunderson will have been dead 18 years by then. Her youngest son could be 18, an adult. Principals in the case — plaintiffs, Sandoz executives, lawyers and maybe even the judge — could be retired or even dead by then.

I’m just a legal journalist, not a lawyer or judge, but I have to wonder if justice is served when an individual personal injury case takes a generation to conclude.