The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Missouri Court of Appeals has reversed a judgment awarding $62 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages against Johnson & Johnson, in a case in which the plaintiffs claimed that the company’s talc products cause ovarian cancer.
The opinion is a mere six pages. The court notes that Missouri courts previously had a practice of allowing out-of-state plaintiffs to pursue claims in Missouri, including products liability cases involving products purchased outside Missouri. The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Bristol-Myers Squibb disapproved that practice (reversing the California Supreme Court) so . . . case dismissed. Presumably, the other three Missouri talc verdicts against Johnson & Johnson will see a similar fate.
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