Chris Cornell’s Family Settles Lawsuit With Former Doctor
Family members of Chris Cornell have settled a lawsuit against his former doctor Robert Koblin M.D. that was filed in 2018, as Rolling Stone reports.
Cornell’s widow Vicky and their children Toni and Christopher were plaintiffs in the case, which alleged that Koblin “negligently and repeatedly” prescribed “dangerous mind-altering controlled substances to Chris Cornell which impaired Mr. Cornell’s cognition, clouded his judgment, and caused him to engage in dangerous impulsive behaviors that he was unable to control, costing him his life.”
The details of the settlement are not known and will remain confidential. “After years of litigation and settlement negotiations, Plaintiffs and Defendants Robert Koblin, M.D., Robert Koblin, M.D., Inc. and Robertson Cardiovascular Center, LLC (collectively, ‘Defendants’) have reached a confidential settlement agreement to resolve all claims asserted by each Plaintiff,” the sealed documents read, per Rolling Stone. They continued:
Over the past several years, online trolls and other unstable individuals have harassed Plaintiffs, including by threatening the life and safety of [the Cornells’ children]. As recently as the past few weeks, Plaintiffs have received death threats online. Furthermore, the increased attention to this case has led to other invasions of Plaintiffs’ privacy.
The suit focused on Koblin’s prescription for the drug Lorazepam (then known as Ativan) between September 2015 and his death by suicide in May 2017.
The autopsy report said that drugs were not the cause of death, but that “unmonitored use of such excessive amounts of Lorazepam … was known to increase the risk of suicide because it can severely impair judgment, thinking and impulse control and diminish the ability of a patient to think and act rationally.”