Largest Missouri Group Settlements and Injury Recovery Funds

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.

A St. Louis jury in July 2018 awarded 22 women and their families $4.69 billion, the largest U.S. verdict of that year, finding that asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer; a Missouri appellate court upheld $2.11 billion in 2020.

A Cole County jury returned $1.56 billion in November 2023 across four plaintiffs whose claims were consolidated for one trial: three Roundup users who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the wife of one of them on a loss of consortium claim. The trial court later cut the punitive awards to roughly nine times each plaintiff's compensatory damages, bringing the judgment down to about $611 million, and the Missouri appellate courts left that judgment standing.

Gray Ritter Graham's Don Downing served as court-appointed co-lead counsel in a massive multidistrict lawsuit against Bayer CropScience over the 2006 contamination of the U.S. long-grain rice supply by an unapproved genetically modified strain, producing a $750 million settlement for more than 11,000 rice farmers across five Southern states.

A St. Louis County jury returned a $745 million verdict against nitrous oxide distributor United Brands and local head shop Coughing Cardinal after finding the companies conspired to sell Whip-It! canisters as an inhalant to a driver who passed out behind the wheel and fatally struck 25-year-old Marissa Politte outside her workplace.

A St. Louis jury awarded $495 million against Abbott Laboratories after finding the company failed to warn that its Similac cow's milk formula could cause necrotizing enterocolitis in premature infants.

Don Downing chaired the court-appointed Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the federal dicamba MDL and negotiated a $400 million settlement with Monsanto/Bayer covering yield losses suffered by soybean farmers across the country from 2015 through 2020.

A Kansas City jury awarded ovarian cancer patient Georgia Hayes $225 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages against pharmacist Robert Courtney, who had diluted chemotherapy drugs for profit. The trial judge later reduced the award to roughly $330 million, and Hayes collected almost nothing from Courtney himself, whose assets had been seized by the federal government. Courtney was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, and drug makers Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb later paid $71 million to settle victims' claims.

A St. Charles County judge entered a $300 million bench-trial judgment for a child, identified only as G.T., who was physically and sexually abused between the ages of three and five while in the care of Susan and James McLaurie, though one defendant died before the suit was filed and the only known insurance was a $303,000 policy.

Humphrey, Farrington and McClain secured a proposed $250 million settlement on behalf of roughly 207,000 Jackson County homeowners whose property-tax assessments illegally exceeded Missouri's 15% annual cap in 2023 and 2024.

A St. Charles County jury awarded $247.3 million to six women sexually assaulted by an unlicensed massage therapist at Oasis Foot Spa & Massage in St. Peters, finding the spa and its owner liable for hiring him without any background check and ignoring an early complaint. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in full in 2024.

Don Downing led the nation's first certified Vioxx consumer fraud class action on behalf of up to 300,000 Missouri purchasers, securing a $220 million settlement with Merck under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.

A St. Louis jury awarded $28 million in compensatory damages and $149 million in punitive damages to Shannon Dugan, a New Jersey sheriff's deputy who was sexually assaulted by a Hyatt security guard who used his master key to enter her hotel room while she slept. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the full award in December 2024.

A St. Louis jury found trailer manufacturer Wabash National 65 percent at fault and awarded $462 million, most of it punitive, after a defective rear underride guard let a car slide beneath a trailer and kill two young fathers; a judge later cut the total to about $119.5 million.

A St. Louis jury awarded $462 million against trailer maker Wabash National after its defective rear-impact guard failed and allowed a car to slide beneath a trailer on I-55, killing Taron Tailor, 30, and Nicholas Perkins, 23, in 2019.

A St. Louis jury returned a $462 million verdict against trailer maker Wabash National for a 2019 underride crash that killed two young fathers, with the award later reduced to approximately $119.5 million by the trial judge.

A four-day trial ended with a $109.2 million verdict against LaFarge North America after Simon Law proved the supplier knowingly sold Gleeson Asphalt base rock that did not meet the grade it was labeled and paid for.

A Jackson County jury returned a $108.6 million verdict for the parents of a woman who died from sepsis after her husband's religious group prevented her from receiving medical care during a botched home birth.

A St. Louis jury awarded $105 million to tire technician Randy Dorman after a Bridgestone/Firestone RH5 multi-piece truck wheel explosively separated during inflation, fracturing his face, both arms, and wrist, while internal company documents showed Firestone engineers had tracked nearly 100 similar incidents for decades.

A Callaway County jury awarded Beth Mayhew and her husband $82.3 million after a truck driver hit their vehicle on I-70 while driving with both feet on the dashboard and holding an iPad to watch videos.

A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $76 million to the family of David Ford, a 48-year-old delivery driver crushed by moving machinery while dropping off vehicle seats at Ford Motor Company's Kansas City Assembly Plant. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full in 2019.

A St. Charles County jury awarded $75 million, including $25 million in punitive damages, to the parents of Krystofer Batsell, a 21-year-old killed when a driver fleeing police at more than 100 mph crashed into his car. The defendant is serving a 15-year prison sentence for second-degree murder, and the judgment is effectively uncollectable.

A Platte County jury returned a record $70 million verdict after an eight-year-old boy died and his six-year-old sister was seriously injured when a distracted driver rear-ended their grandparents' car in a highway construction zone.

A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $65 million to a child who suffered a permanent brain injury before birth when a UPS delivery truck struck his mother's car while she was 13 weeks pregnant. With prejudgment interest, the judgment came to roughly $75.3 million, and the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed it in May 2025.