The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Prince’s family following his accidental overdose death in 2016 has been quietly dismissed in past months.
The defendants in the case included the Minnesota doctor who was treating Prince in the weeks leading up to his death and the Illinois hospital that treated the singer for an opioid overdose just days before his death.
Heirs to Prince’s estate filed the lawsuit in April 2018, claiming that those treating Prince failed to diagnose and properly treat the singer’s addiction, which could have saved his life.
The 57-year-old Grammy award-winning music legend died of an accidental fentanyl overdose on April 21st, 2016, after ingesting counterfeit pills. Officials believe that Prince was not made aware that the pills were indeed the synthetic opioid, which is 50 times stronger than heroin.
According to Page Six, as early as last summer, claims against several defendants, including Dr. Michael Schulenberg, the doctor who saw Prince in the weeks before his death and Walgreens, who filled prescriptions on the singer’s behalf, were all dropped.
The sudden dismissals are likely due to settlements, says Henry Blair, who serves as a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. However, attorneys in the case have not commented.
