Missouri appeals court tosses $72M talcum powder verdict, says suit was filed in wrong state
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A $72 million verdict in a suit contending that talcum powder causes cancer has been overturned as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that limited the jurisdictional reach of state courts.
The Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the verdict obtained by the family of an Alabama woman, Jacqueline Fox, who died before her case against Johnson & Johnson went to trial, report the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She had sued along with more than 60 plaintiffs, two of whom lived in Missouri.
The Supreme Court decision, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, found that California courts did not have specific jurisdiction to hear the claims of nonresidents in a Plavix class action when those plaintiffs didn’t buy or ingest the drug in the state.
Lawyers for Fox’s family had claimed Missouri courts had jurisdiction because the talcum products were sold in Missouri, or because the claims were joined with those of other plaintiffs injured in the state.
The court of appeals disagreed, citing the Supreme Court precedent as well as a Missouri Supreme Court case. “The trial court never had personal jurisdiction in this case,” the appeals court said (PDF).
The appeals court also said it was too late for plaintiffs’ lawyers to suggest a different basis for jurisdiction that was based on a Missouri company that allegedly manufactured talc products.
The award to Fox’s family is among $300 million in verdicts obtained by plaintiffs suing in Missouri state courts over cancer allegedly caused by talcum powder. According to Bloomberg, the decision “endangers the other Missouri verdicts against J&J as well as hundreds of talc actions” pending in a St. Louis court.
