Kansas City, Mo. ? A suburban Kansas City man whose late wife received diluted cancer drugs from pharmacist Robert Courtney has sued the law firms that spearheaded a $73 million settlement with two drug companies, claiming his family was pressured into accepting the deal.

The lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by Jerome S. Tilzer, of Leawood, Kan., on behalf of himself, his wife’s estate and their two children, alleges that the law firms intimidated them into agreeing to the settlement, failed to pursue their claims competently and diligently, and engaged in conflicts of interest and self-dealing.

The law firms — Davis Bethune & Jones and Davis Ketchmark Eischens & McCreight — represented hundreds of plaintiffs in lawsuits against Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which made the principal chemotherapy drugs that Courtney admitted diluting.

Courtney pleaded guilty in early 2002 to 20 counts related to his dilution of 158 chemotherapy doses of the drugs Taxil and Gemzar, which he prepared at his Kansas City pharmacy for 34 patients, including Tilzer’s wife, from March 2001 through June 2001.

Courtney is serving a 30-year prison term but is appealing that sentence. Tilzer’s wife, Rita Tilzer, died Jan. 6, 2002.

The lawsuits against the drug companies asserted they were negligent in failing to uncover or report Courtney’s scheme. Both companies denied culpability, but, citing the uncertainty and expense of litigation and the emotional impact of protracted litigation on the plaintiffs, settled the cases in October 2002 for $72.1 million.

After legal fees and other expenses were deducted, the plaintiffs — about 350 in all — shared in the remainder, estimated at $45 million.

In his suit filed Wednesday, Tilzer said his share of the settlement came to only $308,000.

Lead attorneys Michael Ketchmark and Grant Davis said Tilzer had been expressly told he could opt out of the settlement.