When the verdict was read out in Angleton, Texas, Mrs Ernst wept and her lawyer, Mark Lanier shouted "Amen".

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Mark Lanier, a Houston lawyer who is representing clients who have claims in the spill, expressed his disgust with the bonuses.

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The revelation comes after a Merck spokesman said the company had heard from Mark Lanier, a plaintiff's lawyer, that Topol is leaving the clinic.

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But Mark Lanier, the lawyer for plaintiff Carol Ernst, was able to convince the jury that her husband may have died of a heart attack.

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But Mark Lanier, the lawyer for plaintiff Carol Ernst, was able to convince the jury that her husband Robert, a triathlete, died of a heart attack.

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Mark Lanier, the plaintiff's lawyer, made much of Merck's allegedly deliberate economy with the truth, and played on the current public hostility towards the drug industry to win his case.

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" Topol said: "I am still working at the clinic, and you have to talk to Mark Lanier because if there's anything that's going to come out it's going to come from him.

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The revelation comes after a Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) spokesman said the company had heard from Mark Lanier, a plaintiff's lawyer, that Topol is leaving the clinic.

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" He called the Merck statement "misinformation, " saying, "I am still working at the clinic, and you have to talk to Mark Lanier, because if there's anything that's going to come out, it's going to come from him.

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