Appeals court tosses $72 million award in talcum-powder case

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

A Missouri appeals court ruling Tuesday that vacated a $72 million award to an Alabama woman who claimed her use of Johnson & Johnson products that contained talcum contributed to her ovarian cancer has thrown the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.

The Missouri Eastern District Court’s ruling that Missouri was not the proper jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., who claimed the baby powder she used for feminine hygiene for about 25 years contributed to her cancer. She died in 2015, about four months before her case went to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. In February 2016, a jury awarded Fox $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages – the first award in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.

The appeals court cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where alleged injuries occurred. The case involved suits against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the blood-thinning medication Plavix.

More than 1,000 others have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson, which is based in Brunswick, N.J. In four of five trials held so far, jurors awarded more than $300 million combined. Only two of the 64 cases attached to Fox’s case lived in Missouri.

The company appealed all the awards against it and says its products are safe. A spokeswoman said after Tuesday’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson is confident its appeals will be successful.

Jim Onder, who is representing many plaintiffs in the lawsuits, has argued that Missouri is a proper jurisdiction because Johnson & Johnson packages and labels some products in Missouri. Onder’s firm did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Tuesday but he told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the Supreme Court sent the Bristol case back to California state court, and he is confident the Missouri Supreme Court will do the same.