Courts
The singer's family settled wrongful death claims against the company and another pharmacy that filled Carter's prescriptions before his death in 2022
Aaron Carter‘s estate has reached a settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of his toddler son against Walgreens and another pharmacy that prescribed the singer Xanax before his 2022 drowning.
In a court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, an attorney for Carter’s estate said that they had “reached a settlement resolving all claims” between Walgreens and Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy. The settlement does not include the estate’s claims against dentist Jason Mirabile, which remain pending.
The terms of the agreement were not made public. Attorneys for Walgreens did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawyers for Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy declined to comment.
Carter, the younger brother of Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter, was found dead in his bathtub in November 2022. The following year, Carter’s former fiancée, Melanie Martin, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of their minor son and Carter’s sole heir, Princeton “Prince” Lyric Carter. The case faced a slew of legal challenges before a Los Angeles County judge ruled last year that Princeton had a right to a jury trial over claims that two doctors and the pharmacies “overprescribed” and supplied the pop star with “excessively high and unreasonably frequent amounts” of Xanax before he drowned.
In May, Carter’s estate settled with Dr. John Faber, who was sued through his psychiatry practice, Amen Clinics, and agreed to pay a “confidential sum” to fully resolve the allegations against him. Lawyers for Faber’s clinic said the parties agreed that general damages in the case were capped at $650,000 due to California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), the state law that limits noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. Amen’s attorneys maintained in the May filing that the clinic followed all standards of care and that the artist’s death was caused not by Xanax, but by his inhalation of difluoroethane from canisters.
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Carter became an overnight global sensation following the release of his self-titled solo album in 1997 at nine years old and performance as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys. His sophomore album, the platinum-selling 2000’s Aaron’s Party (Come Get It), featured hits “I Want Candy” and the LP’s title track. He would roll out two more Top 20 albums — 2001’s Oh Aaron and 2002’s Another Earthquake — and released his final album, Love, in 2018.