St. Louis Jury Awards $4.69 Billion to 22 Women Over Asbestos-Laced Talcum Powder
Won by Gray Ritter Graham.
A St. Louis jury returned a $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson and Johnson on behalf of 22 women who developed ovarian cancer after years of using the company's talcum powder products, with Thomas K. Neill of Gray, Ritter and Graham, P.C. serving on the plaintiff trial team.
What happened
For decades, Johnson and Johnson marketed its talcum-based baby powder to women as a safe, everyday hygiene product. Twenty-two women claimed the company knew better. Internal documents presented at trial showed that J and J officials had been aware for more than 30 years that at least trace amounts of asbestos had been detected in various batches of talc used in its powder, yet the company continued selling the products without adequate warnings.
All 22 plaintiffs were diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which they attributed to long-term use of Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. Six of the women had died before the case reached the courthouse. Their family members, including spouses, joined the suit as representatives of their estates. Gail Ingham, a Missouri resident, was among the lead plaintiffs, and the case bore her name.
The trial ran for approximately six weeks before St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Rex Burlison. The plaintiff team was led by W. Mark Lanier of the Lanier Law Firm and included Thomas K. Neill of Gray, Ritter and Graham, P.C., and Eric D. Holland of the Holland Law Firm. On July 12, 2018, a jury of six men and six women voted unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding $25 million in compensatory damages per plaintiff, totaling $550 million. The jury then returned $4.14 billion in punitive damages, split between J and J and its consumer subsidiary, bringing the total to $4.69 billion.
The verdict stood as the largest in Missouri history and one of the largest product-liability verdicts in U.S. history at the time. On appeal, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District reversed the judgment as to seventeen non-resident plaintiffs on personal-jurisdiction grounds, reducing the pool of compensable claimants. Thomas K. Neill remained on the case through the appeal, representing the surviving plaintiffs alongside Holland's firm.
The case drew national attention for the internal documents it surfaced. Plaintiff attorneys argued those records showed J and J prioritized market share over consumer safety, a finding the jury credited in its punitive award.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Gray Ritter Graham
All Gray Ritter Graham proven verdicts →Scott Powell of Hare Wynn Newell and Newton served as one of four co-lead class counsel in the $1.51 billion nationwide settlement against Syngenta, recovering losses for hundreds of thousands of U.S. corn growers, grain handlers, and ethanol producers whose market access to China was cut off after the company prematurely commercialized an unapproved GMO corn trait.
Maurice Graham of Gray, Ritter and Graham secured a $55 million class action settlement in Doyle v. Fluor for Herculaneum, Missouri homeowners whose properties were contaminated by lead emissions from the Doe Run smelter.
Tom Neill of Gray, Ritter and Graham represented the family of one victim killed when a 3,000-pound pressurized steam vessel exploded at Loy-Lange Box Company in St. Louis's Soulard neighborhood, launching the tank into a neighboring laundry and killing four people total; consolidated wrongful-death, injury, and property suits settled for more than $47 million.
Army Reserve pilot Kenney Jones died on July 31, 1994 when his Chinook helicopter struck unmarked power lines over the Osage River in Missouri. On retrial in St. Louis in 2001, a jury found the Three Rivers Electric Cooperative 100 percent at fault and awarded his widow $10 million for herself, the couple's two daughters and his parents. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed in 2002.
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