The world’s largest drugmaker, Pfizer, was set to defend itself today in court regarding a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging its Neurontin epilepsy medicine caused a retired minister to commit suicide two months after he began taking the drug for chronic pain, not epilepsy.

However, attorneys for the New York-based firm told a Nashville, Tennessee judge they resolved claims by the family of Richard Smith, but did not disclose the terms, said bloomberg.com. This is the second claim settlement that officials of a Pfizer unit knew the controversial drug posed a suicide risk but failed to alert doctors and patients.

“I’m very pleased the case has been resolved,” U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger told lawyers for Smith’s family and the company today, quoted bloomberg.com. Smith, 79, was a retired Church of Christ minister, according to court papers, which also indicated he was taking the drug for chronic pain, an off-label use of the medication.

While doctors are allowed to prescribe an approved drug for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies are barred by law from promoting off-label use. By touting Neurontin as a painkiller, Smith’s doctor was recommending an off-label use of the drug.

Pfizer faces more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing it of illegally promoting Neurontin for unapproved uses and possibly causing some users’ suicides. In March, a Boston jury ordered Pfizer to pay more than $140 million in damages to an insurer over its marketing practices of Neurontin. Pfizer has denied any wrongdoing.

According to bloomberg.com, the mega-company’s Warner-Lambert subsidiary paid a $430 million fine after pleading guilty in 2004 to criminal charges filed by the Justice Department regarding allegations it illegally marketed Neurontin. Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert for $120 billion in 2000.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Smith family to resolve this case as it avoids the time and expense of a trial,” said Chris Loder, a Pfizer spokesman, in an e-mailed statement. “We have great sympathy for the Smith family and respect their desire for privacy regarding the outcome of the case,” quoted bloomberg.com.

As part of the guilty plea, Warner-Lambert officials acknowledged the company engaged in “deceptive off-label marketing” of Neurontin, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said in 2004.

A former Warner-Lambert medical liaison testified in an earlier suit he was told to market Neurontin to doctors for other than approved uses by regulators. Dr. David Franklin, who won a $25 million whistleblower suit against the drugmaker over the medicine, said he was given a “snake-oil list” of unapproved uses to increase Neurontin’s sales, said bloomberg.com. Franklin was scheduled to testify in Smith’s case.

Smith, who worked part-time as a service manager at a Nashville office-machines store, began taking Neurontin in March 2004 to relieve chronic pain associated with back and neck surgeries, according to court filings. Lawyers for his family say in the papers that Warner-Lambert officials didn’t properly warn Smith’s doctors the drug was known to cause depression and suicidal thoughts in some users, explained bloomberg.com.

In May, Smith killed himself with a gunshot to the head, according to the filings. In a note to his family, Smith indicated he was tired of being in pain.

Lawyers for the family said he’d told relatives before his suicide that the Neurontin “was making him feel not himself,” according to court filings. “Mr. Smith’s death was inexplicable to family members because Mr. Smith was a godly man and he knew suicide was wrong,” they added in the filing, wrote bloomberg.com.