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December 19th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The family of a Melbourne woman leading a class action against the German inventor of pregnancy drug thalidomide has urged the company not to delay her claim.
The plea came after a Victorian Supreme Court judge dismissed a bid by drug company Grunenthal to have Victorian woman Lynette Rowe, who was born without arms and legs, conduct her compensation case in Germany.
Lead plaintiff Miss Rowe, 49, shed tears as her father welcomed Justice David Beach’s decision to have her case heard in Victoria, where her mother took thalidomide to combat morning sickness.
Ian Rowe said it would have been impossible for his brave daughter to travel to Germany to bring her case because of the care she requires.
He called on Grunenthal and drug distributor Diageo to not stall her claim.
“Time is not on our side. We really need to know how Lynne will be provided for when we can no longer do it ourselves,” Mr Rowe told reporters in Melbourne.
The class action against Grunenthal, Diageo Scotland Ltd and the UK-based Distillers Company (Biochemicals) Ltd is on behalf of Australians born between January 1, 1958, and December 31, 1970, whose mothers consumed thalidomide while pregnant.
The drug was withdrawn from sale in Germany in November 1961 when its use was linked to a range of birth deformities.
Grunenthal has insisted for 50 years it did nothing wrong in the thalidomide tragedy.
But the class action alleges Grunenthal knew the drug was linked to birth defects.
Plaintiff lawyer Peter Gordon from Gordon Legal said the drug was a medical and pharmaceutical disaster and Monday’s decision had exposed Grunenthal in Australia for the first time.
“Lynette’s action makes Grunenthal at least accountable in court proceedings to her in the place, in the state, where the damage was done to her,” Mr Gordon told reporters.
“In doing so, it provides a pathway for thalidomiders all over the world who over the past 50 years have been denied their day in court.”
Mr Gordon said he hoped the case would get to trial next year.
He said legal researchers had found documents in Europe suggesting reasonable steps would have protected Miss Rowe from the tragedy 50 years ago.
He hoped the case would make people with thalidomide injuries, who had not previously been compensated, aware that they might have rights to pursue Grunenthal.
A criminal trial was brought against several Grunenthal executives in Germany over thalidomide, but it collapsed in the 1970s.
While many compensation claims against the thalidomide companies have been settled, plaintiff lawyer Michael Magazanik from Slater and Gordon said as far as the plaintiff lawyers were aware, neither Grunenthal nor Diageo had ever been held accountable by a court in a judgment.
“Grunenthal and the Diageo defendants have insisted for half a century that they were not negligent, that they didn’t ignore warning signs, that they did all the right things,” he said.
“If all that is right then they genuinely have nothing to fear and they ought to let us get to a trial.”
In the past year, more than 100 Australians have contacted the legal team with evidence of thalidomide-related injuries.
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