Top Individual Product Liability Verdicts and Settlements
The 20 largest individual personal injury results for product liability cases on record here, ranked by amount: one client's, one family's, or one incident's recovery, never a pooled fund. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $3.8 billionVerdictOn appealNot collectableNV
Real Water Poisoning: $3.8 Billion Verdict in Alkaline Water Liver Failure Cases
A Clark County jury awarded $3.8 billion against Real Water on March 21, 2025, after finding the Las Vegas alkaline water company liable for poisoning consumers with hydrazine-contaminated product that caused acute liver failure, autoimmune disease, and death.
After trial: The $3.8 billion verdict includes about $3 billion in punitive damages that plaintiffs' attorney Will Kemp says will be cut to roughly $1.4 billion under Nevada's statutory cap limiting punitive damages to three times compensatory damages. Real Water is bankrupt and no longer operating, so any payout will have to come from its insurers.
- $2.53 billionVerdictNot collectableGA
$2.53 Billion Ford Super Duty Roof Crush Verdict for a Georgia Couple
A federal jury in Columbus, Georgia awarded $30.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages against Ford Motor Company for the deaths of Herman and Debra Mills, killed when the roof of their 2015 F-250 Super Duty crushed down on them in a rollover. Butler Prather LLP tried the case, with James E. Butler Jr., Ramsey Prather, Daniel Philyaw, and Allison Bailey on the trial team. The honest frame: Ford called the verdict impermissibly extreme, moved for a new trial, and in September 2025 settled this case and the related $1.7 billion Hill case on confidential terms, so the verdict was never collected as awarded.
After trial: Ford's motion for a new trial was never decided: the case settled on confidential terms in September 2025, and the verdict was never collected as awarded.
- $2.07 billionVerdictNot collectableGA
Cobb County Jury Awards John Barnes $2.065 Billion in Roundup Cancer Trial
A Cobb County, Georgia jury found that Monsanto's Roundup caused John Barnes's non-Hodgkin lymphoma and awarded him $2.065 billion, with Arnold & Itkin's Kyle Findley serving as lead trial lawyer.
After trial: Bayer settled the case in November 2025 on confidential terms, so the verdict was never collected as awarded.
- $1.2 billionVerdictReduced from $4.9 billionCA
$4.9 Billion Verdict Over Chevy Malibu Fuel Tank Fire
A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu's rear-mounted fuel tank ruptured and burned six occupants in a rear-end crash, the largest US personal-injury verdict at the time.
After trial: The punitive award was cut to $1.09 billion after trial, about $1.2 billion in total, and the case settled confidentially while the appeal was pending.
Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Greene Broillet & Wheeler and Robinson Calcagnie, Inc.1999 · Los Angeles, CA (LA County Superior Court)Read the full story → - $966 millionVerdictOn appealCA
$966 Million Talc Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson for a Mesothelioma Death, Punitive Award Vacated
On October 6, 2025, a Los Angeles County jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of Mae K. Moore, a mother of three who died of mesothelioma in December 2021 at age 88 after decades of using the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. The award comprised $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, reported at the time as the largest talc-mesothelioma verdict ever returned against Johnson & Johnson. On March 13, 2026, the trial judge, Ruth Ann Kwan, vacated the entire $950 million punitive award, finding the malice showing insufficient, while leaving the $16 million compensatory judgment intact. Both sides have said they will appeal. Dean Omar Branham Shirley tried the case for the Moore family, and this page documents it as part of the public record.
After trial: The $950 million punitive award was vacated by the trial court in March 2026; $16 million in compensatory damages stands and cross-appeals are pending.
- $725.5 millionVerdictPA
$725.5 Million Verdict Against ExxonMobil for Mechanic's Leukemia, Reported as Largest Benzene Award
A Philadelphia jury awarded $725.5 million to former Mobil service station mechanic Paul Gill, who developed acute myeloid leukemia after years of cleaning car parts with benzene-containing gasoline and solvents, in what was reported as the largest benzene verdict in U.S. history; the court later added over $90 million in delay damages while ExxonMobil's appeal remains pending.
After trial: Post-trial motions were denied in September 2024 and delay damages brought the judgment to roughly $816 million. ExxonMobil's appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court is pending.
- $615 millionVerdictReduced from $787 millionNot collectableOH
$787 Million Verdict Against Absent Vietnamese Bunk Bed Maker After Toddler's Death
A federal jury in Columbus assessed $787 million in damages against Moash Enterprise Company Limited, the Vietnamese manufacturer of a bunk bed that killed a two-year-old boy, after the company was defaulted for never appearing in the case. The court later cut the award to $615 million under Ohio's punitive damages cap, and nothing in the record shows the judgment has been collected.
After trial: The jury returned $787 million but the judgment actually entered was $615 million, after the court cut punitive damages from $522 million to $350 million under Ohio's cap. The manufacturer never appeared and has no United States assets, so the judgment is effectively uncollectable; the American importers and retailer settled separately in July 2022 on undisclosed terms.
Law Offices of Daniel R. Mordarski LLC2023 · U.S. District Court, Southern District of OhioRead the full story → - $543 millionVerdictReduced from $1.04 billionTX
Dallas Jury Awards $1.04 Billion Against J&J Over Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants
A Dallas federal jury awarded $1.04 billion to six California patients harmed by Johnson and Johnson's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading an eight-week trial that produced one of the largest product-liability verdicts of 2016.
After trial: Reduced to about $543 million under punitive damages caps; the Pinnacle claims later resolved in a roughly $1 billion global settlement in 2019.
The Lanier Law Firm and Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $505 millionVerdictNV
$505 Million Verdict Against Teva and Baxter for Propofol Vials That Spread Hepatitis C Across Las Vegas
A Clark County jury awarded Henry and Lorraine Chanin $505 million against Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare after finding that both companies supplied oversized propofol vials to Las Vegas endoscopy clinics, enabling the reuse that infected Henry Chanin with hepatitis C.
After trial: Settled after the verdict: the $505 million award stood until February 2012, when the case was resolved as part of Teva's global propofol settlement before the Nevada Supreme Court ruled. The amount paid to the Chanins was not made public.
- $495 millionVerdictMO
$495 Million Verdict Against Abbott for Failing to Warn That Similac Caused NEC in Premature Infant
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.
After trial: Abbott appealed and lost: a Missouri appeals court upheld the $495 million verdict. Rather than pay the judgment plus accrued interest, Abbott in August 2026 reached settlement agreements resolving the Gill case together with roughly 2,000 other NEC claims for an aggregate of about $670 million; the portion paid to the Gill family specifically was not disclosed.
TorHoerman Law2024 · 22nd Judicial Circuit, St. Louis, Missouri (Case No. 2322-CC01251)Read the full story → - $400 millionVerdictOn appealPA
Kline & Specter Wins $2.25 Billion Roundup Cancer Verdict
A Philadelphia jury found that Monsanto failed to warn that Roundup could cause cancer and awarded John McKivison $2.25 billion. The trial judge later reduced the award to $400 million.
After trial: The trial judge cut the verdict by more than 80 percent, to $400 million ($50 million compensatory and $350 million punitive). The plaintiff appealed the reduction and Monsanto appealed the liability finding.
- $363 millionVerdictIL
Sterigenics Verdict: $363 Million for a Willowbrook Cancer Survivor
A Cook County jury found Sterigenics and its corporate owners liable for Sue Kamuda's breast cancer from ethylene oxide emissions and awarded $363 million, then the largest individual-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history.
After trial: After the verdict, Sterigenics and Sotera Health settled all 879 Illinois ethylene oxide claims, including this one, for $408 million in January 2023. The individual share was not separately disclosed.
- $247 millionVerdictTX
Dallas Jury Awards $247 Million to Six New York Patients Over J&J's Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants
A Dallas federal jury awarded six New York patients $247 million against Johnson and Johnson and its DePuy unit, finding that the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant system was defectively designed and that the company concealed known risks from patients and surgeons.
After trial: The Pinnacle hip claims were later resolved in a global settlement of about $1 billion in 2019.
The Lanier Law Firm2017 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - ~$213 millionVerdictReduced from $242.1 millionTX
$242.1 Million Toyota Seatback Verdict for Two Brain-Injured Children
A Dallas County jury awarded $242.1 million to Benjamin and Kristi Reavis after the front seatbacks of their 2002 Lexus ES 300 collapsed in a rear-end crash and both parents were thrown into their two small children, who suffered permanent brain injuries. Frank L. Branson led the trial team from The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, which included Debbie Branson. The trial judge reduced the judgment to about $213 million under the Texas punitive damages cap, a divided Dallas appeals court affirmed in 2021, and the case then settled in December 2021 on confidential terms while Toyota's appeal was pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
After trial: Judgment reduced to about $213 million under the Texas punitive damages cap; affirmed on appeal in 2021, then settled confidentially in December 2021 while pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, P.C.2018 · 134th Judicial District Court, Dallas County, TXRead the full story → - $182.6 millionVerdictNV
$182.6 Million Verdict Against Drug Companies in Las Vegas Hepatitis C Outbreak
A Clark County jury awarded five hepatitis C patients $182.6 million against Teva, Baxter Healthcare, and McKesson after finding the companies negligently distributed oversized propofol vials to Las Vegas endoscopy clinics without adequate warnings against multi-patient reuse.
After trial: The $182.6 million verdict was made up of $20.1 million in compensatory damages and $162.5 million in punitive damages against Teva, Baxter, and McKesson. Rather than litigate its appeal, Teva agreed in February 2012 to pay roughly $250 to $285 million to settle about 120 remaining Las Vegas hepatitis C lawsuits, though the settlement's allocation to this specific verdict was not disclosed.
- $175 millionVerdictPA
Kline & Specter Wins $175 Million Roundup Cancer Verdict Against Monsanto
A Philadelphia jury awarded Ernest Caranci $175 million after finding that decades of Roundup use caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that Monsanto failed to warn of the risk. Kline & Specter tried the case, the first Roundup trial in Philadelphia, and the verdict was later upheld on appeal.
After trial: Affirmed in May 2025.
- $160 millionVerdictAL
$160 Million Verdict Against Daimler Over a Truck Cab Design Left Unchanged for Nearly 30 Years
A Clarke County jury awarded Leonard Street $150 million and his wife Tracy $10 million after finding that Daimler Truck North America and Western Star had defectively designed the cab of the 2023 Western Star he was driving, using a roof structure dating to 1995 and a suspension seat that did not hold him in place when the truck rolled.
After trial: Daimler said it would appeal. No appellate outcome has been reported, so this remains a jury verdict rather than a collected judgment.
- $157 millionVerdictNot collectableIN
$157 Million Jury Verdict for Widow of Man Killed by Defective Ol' Man Tree Stand
A Tippecanoe County jury awarded $157 million to the widow of Timothy Simonton, a 42-year-old Indiana man who died in October 2005 after the locking pins on an Ol' Man tree stand failed and left him hanging from a tree during a deer-scouting outing.
After trial: None of the three defendant companies, including tree stand maker TSR Inc. and its predecessor L&L Enterprises, appeared to contest the case at trial, and L&L's own registered agent said he had not been involved with the company for about a year. The defendants appear to have been out of business by the time of the 2009 verdict, making the judgment largely uncollectable.
- $151.8 millionVerdictAL
$151.8 Million Verdict for Paralyzed Man After 1998 Ford Explorer Rollover
A Dallas County, Alabama jury awarded Travaris Smith $151.8 million after a 1998 Ford Explorer rolled twice and severed his spinal cord, finding Ford failed its own safety standards and destroyed test data to conceal the defect.
- $120 millionVerdictPA
Philadelphia Jury Awards $120 Million Against J&J's Ethicon Over Eroded Pelvic Mesh
A Philadelphia jury found that Ethicon negligently designed the TVT-O pelvic mesh implanted in Susan McFarland of Altoona and returned $120 million, which Kline & Specter called the largest pelvic-mesh verdict reached to that point.
After trial: Ethicon appealed. No independent source confirms how the appeal was resolved.
All product liability verdicts and settlements
285 results, largest first
Sullivan Papain was among the firms representing New York State against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, securing a $25 billion recovery through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
C. Steven Yerrid, the youngest of Florida's 11-lawyer 'Dream Team,' added racketeering and conspiracy charges that tripled the damages ceiling, helping the state secure what was then the largest civil settlement in American history against the tobacco industry.
As co-lead counsel in the federal Roundup multidistrict litigation and the first firm to sue Monsanto in 2015, Weitz and Luxenberg helped negotiate a $10.9 billion settlement resolving approximately 125,000 non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims against Bayer-owned Monsanto.
After fifteen years of litigation and three failed bankruptcy maneuvers by Johnson and Johnson subsidiaries, Ashcraft and Gerel attorneys R. Bryant McCulley and Michelle Parfitt helped negotiate a global, uncapped settlement of at least $5.5 billion covering approximately 76,000 ovarian-cancer claims.
As chair of the plaintiffs' negotiating committee and Liaison Counsel in the Vioxx multidistrict litigation, Russ Herman directed the negotiations that produced a $4.85 billion settlement with Merck resolving approximately 45,000 to 50,000 personal-injury claims.
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 Clark County jury awarded $3.8 billion against Real Water on March 21, 2025, after finding the Las Vegas alkaline water company liable for poisoning consumers with hydrazine-contaminated product that caused acute liver failure, autoimmune disease, and death.
Acting as outside trial counsel for Los Angeles County, the firm then known as Greene, Broillet, Taylor, Wheeler and Panish helped recover approximately $3.3 billion for the county through the 1998 nationwide Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
A federal jury in Columbus, Georgia awarded $30.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 billion in punitive damages against Ford Motor Company for the deaths of Herman and Debra Mills, killed when the roof of their 2015 F-250 Super Duty crushed down on them in a rollover. Butler Prather LLP tried the case, with James E. Butler Jr., Ramsey Prather, Daniel Philyaw, and Allison Bailey on the trial team. The honest frame: Ford called the verdict impermissibly extreme, moved for a new trial, and in September 2025 settled this case and the related $1.7 billion Hill case on confidential terms, so the verdict was never collected as awarded.
Ellen Relkin served as court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant MDL, helping negotiate a $2.5 billion settlement for roughly 8,000 patients who required revision surgery after the metal-on-metal device failed.
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 Cobb County, Georgia jury found that Monsanto's Roundup caused John Barnes's non-Hodgkin lymphoma and awarded him $2.065 billion, with Arnold & Itkin's Kyle Findley serving as lead trial lawyer.
Frantz Law Group, led by attorneys James Frantz and William Shinoff, represented nearly 1,000 public school districts across 38 states in multidistrict litigation against JUUL Labs, reaching a $1.7 billion settlement in 2023 that covered approximately 1,600 school districts, local governments, tribal entities, and individual consumers.
A Gwinnett County jury awarded roughly $24 million in compensatory damages and $1.7 billion in punitive damages against Ford Motor Company for the 2014 rollover deaths of Melvin and Voncile Hill in a 2002 F-250, with James E. Butler Jr. of Butler Prather LLP as lead trial counsel; the Georgia Court of Appeals vacated the judgment in November 2024 and ordered a new trial, and Ford settled the case on confidential terms in September 2025 before a third trial could begin.
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.
Court-appointed Chair Lead Counsel Peter Prieto of Podhurst Orseck coordinated the nation's largest automotive defect MDL, securing more than $1.5 billion in settlements from seven automakers for tens of millions of vehicle owners harmed by defective Takata airbag inflators.
A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu's rear-mounted fuel tank ruptured and burned six occupants in a rear-end crash, the largest US personal-injury verdict at the time.
Retained as outside counsel to the Nevada Attorney General, Eglet Adams drove more than $1.1 billion in opioid settlements across 12 agreements with over 40 defendants, including Walgreens, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and Johnson & Johnson.
On Nov. 3, 2014, Howmedica Osteonics, doing business as Stryker Orthopaedics, settled the claims of about 3,000 people who had surgery to remove recalled Rejuvenate and ABG II modular hip stems. The deal was announced in the Bergen County courthouse and paired with a parallel proceeding in the federal MDL in Minnesota. It sets a base award per failed implant plus enhancements for complications, with no fixed fund, and was expected to pay out more than $1 billion. Thomas Anapol of Anapol Schwartz sat on the court-appointed Plaintiff Steering Committee for the New Jersey litigation.
A Philadelphia jury awarded roughly $976.5 million, including $800 million in punitive damages, after the rip-stitch seat belt in Francis Amagasu's 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT tore during a rollover and left him quadriplegic. Daniel Sherry Jr., Nancy Winkler, and Jessica Colliver tried the case for the firm then known as Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, with co-counsel Kyle Farrar and Wes Ball of Houston's Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball. On December 22, 2025 the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated the judgment, which had grown to over $1 billion with delay damages, and ordered a new trial over the jury instructions. The retrial had not yet taken place as of this writing.
On October 6, 2025, a Los Angeles County jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of Mae K. Moore, a mother of three who died of mesothelioma in December 2021 at age 88 after decades of using the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. The award comprised $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, reported at the time as the largest talc-mesothelioma verdict ever returned against Johnson & Johnson. On March 13, 2026, the trial judge, Ruth Ann Kwan, vacated the entire $950 million punitive award, finding the malice showing insufficient, while leaving the $16 million compensatory judgment intact. Both sides have said they will appeal. Dean Omar Branham Shirley tried the case for the Moore family, and this page documents it as part of the public record.
A Philadelphia jury awarded $725.5 million to former Mobil service station mechanic Paul Gill, who developed acute myeloid leukemia after years of cleaning car parts with benzene-containing gasoline and solvents, in what was reported as the largest benzene verdict in U.S. history; the court later added over $90 million in delay damages while ExxonMobil's appeal remains pending.
Cory Watson's Jon Conlin, a co-lead lawyer on the plaintiffs' steering committee, helped drive DuPont and Chemours to a $670.7 million global settlement resolving about 3,550 C-8 water-contamination cancer and injury claims.
A federal jury found CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart liable for creating an opioid public nuisance in northeast Ohio, leading to a $650 million abatement judgment, the first of its kind against pharmacy chains in U.S. history.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.