Last Thursday, a federal jury in Dallas awarded $32 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages to six California plaintiffs who alleged they were injured by defective hip implants made by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopedics unit.  The company immediately announced its plans to appeal, Reuters reports. 

Before any appeal, however, it is likely that the trial judge will reduce the punitive damages.  The judge in this case already reduced a big punitive damages award involving the same hip implants.  He ruled in July that a $500 million verdict was excessive, and reduced it to $151 million under Texas state law.

Johnson & Johnson was able to avoid punitive damages when facing similar claims in Los Angeles a few years ago, as we reported at the time.  But now Johnson & Johnson has to contend with this massive award, on top of the three big punitive damages verdicts in the Missouri talc litigation.  2016 has not been a good year for Johnson & Johnson in the courtroom. 

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, has affirmed a judgment awarding $15 million in compensatory damages and $23 million in punitive damages against drug maker Abbott Laboratories.  The plaintiffs consisted of 29 individuals who claimed they suffered birth defects because their mothers took Abbott’s antiepileptic drug Depakote.  The appellate court rejected Abbott’s argument that plaintiffs failed to prove Abbott deliberately disregarded the safety of others when marketing the drug.   

Johnson & Johnson will soon be challenging some very large Missouri punitive damages awards, so they can’t be too happy to see this opinion.  But the court in this case applied Minnesota law to the punitive damages claim, so the decision should not have any direct impact on J&J’s talc appeals.

Fortune reports that a jury in Missouri has awarded $65 million in punitive damages and $2.5 in compensatory damages against Johnson & Johnson, in favor of a woman who claims J&J’s baby powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer.

This is the third time a Missouri jury has returned a huge verdict against Johnson & Johnson based on claims that its talc-based powders caused ovarian cancer.  The company has appealed the other two verdicts and plans to appeal this one too. It seems unlikely that the 26-to-1 ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages in this case could survive post-trial motions and appeal.

It’s a good week to be a Florida plaintiff seeking punitive damages.

CVN news reports that a Fort Lauderdale jury has awarded a smoker’s family $20 million in punitive damages (on top of $9 million in compensatory damages) against R.J. Reynolds.

And The Real Deal reports that a bankruptcy judge in Miami has awarded $12.5 million in punitive damages against developer D.R. Horton for allegedly improper lending practices that contributed to the bankruptcy of a homeowners association.

The Long-Beach Press Telegram reported earlier this week on a $1.7 million punitive damages verdict against the Community Hospital of Long Beach and a co-defendant, Memorial Psychiatric Health Services.

According to the article, the case involved three former hospital employees who claimed they were subjected to harassment and discrimination by an openly gay male nurse who worked for the defendants.  The jury awarded one of the plaintiffs $1.5 million in punitive damages and $165,175 in compensatory damages (a 9-to-1 ratio), and awarded the other two each $100,000 in punitive damages and $1.4 million in compensatory damages (a .07 to 1 ratio).

According to the article, both defendants presented evidence that they could not afford to pay even the compensatory damages, much less a sizable punitive damages award.  That suggests the defendants will argue in post-trial motions that the award is excessive in relation to their financial condition.

Reuters is reporting that U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade of the Northern District of Texas has reduced a $360 million punitive damages award against Johnson & Johnson.  A jury had awarded that amount, on top of $140 million in compensatory damages, in a case involving allegedly defective hip implants.  Per the story, the judge has reduced the total award to $151 million, pursuant to a Texas statute limiting punitive damages. That total suggests the punitive damages were reduced to $11 million, but the story does not elaborate.

Many of our readers have probably already heard about this verdict, which came down a few days ago, but in case you missed it . . .

Reuters is reporting that a Missouri state jury has decided Johnson & Johnson should pay $5 million in compensatory damages and $55 million in punitive damages in a products liability lawsuit involving Baby Powder and Shower to Shower Powder.  The plaintiff’s theory is that talc in these products caused her to develop ovarian cancer. 

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because in February another jury in the same court awarded $72 million, including $62 million in punitive damages, in a case with nearly identical allegations.  Johnson & Johnson has announced its intention to appeal in both cases.

10 11 News of Nebraska is reporting that a state court jury has awarded $2.6 billion, including $2.4 billion in punitive damages, to a father whose daughter was allegedly murdered by the defendant.  This is a symbolic award, as the defendant is in prison and presumably doesn’t have $2.6 billion laying around.

In January we reported on a large punitive damages award against Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga.  My News LA reports that the trial judge (Judge Mark Mooney of the Los Angeles Superior Court) has ordered the plaintiff to accept a reduction of the punitive damages from $6.47 to $4.6 million or face a new trial.  The reduced amount is five times the amount of compensatory damages (the jury awarded seven times the compensatories).

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that a federal district court jury in Wisconsin has awarded nearly $1 billion in damages, including $700 million in punitive damages, against Tata Consultancy Services for theft of trade secrets. The plaintiff, software maker Epic, accused a Tata employee of posing as an Epic customer in order to gain access to proprietary information on Epic’s computer network. 

This case reminds us once again that punitive damages are awarded in cases that do not fit the mold of consumer versus large corporation.  Epic, the plaintiff here, is a corporation that generated revenues in excess of $2 billion in 2015.  

The Times of India reports that Tata intends to appeal.  The story reports that, according to Tata, the district court judge has already indicated he will reduce the amount of damages.