Missouri court’s ruling voids award in talc-powder suit
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday vacated a $72 million award to an Alabama woman who claimed her use of Johnson & Johnson products that contained talcum contributed to her ovarian cancer, throwing the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.
The Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., who said the baby powder she used for about 25 years contributed to her cancer. She died in 2015, about four months before her case went to trial in St. Louis
Circuit Court.
In February 2016, a jury awarded Fox $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages — the first award in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.
The appeals court cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying a state court cannot hear claims brought by outof-state residents against companies not based in the state. The case involved suits against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the blood-thinning medication Plavix.
More than 1,000 other people have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson, which is based in New Brunswick, N.J. In four of five trials held so far, jurors awarded more than $300 million combined. Only two plaintiffs in the 64 cases attached to Fox’s case lived in Missouri.
The company has appealed all the awards against it and says its products are safe. A spokesman said after Tuesday’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson is confident its appeals will be successful.
“In the cases involving nonresident plaintiffs who sued in the state of Missouri, we consistently argued that there was no jurisdiction and we expect
the existing verdicts that we are appealing to be reversed,” spokesman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.
Jim Onder, who is representing many plaintiffs in the lawsuits, has argued that Missouri is a proper jurisdiction because Johnson & Johnson packages and labels some products in Missouri. Onder said that the Supreme Court sent the Bristol-Myers Squibb case back to California state court and that he is confident the Missouri Supreme Court will do the same.
Talc is a soft mineral that is widely used in personal care products to absorb moisture, and for other products including paint and plastics.
Most research has established no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and the use of baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have said talc is harmless. But some smaller studies have found a small link, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of talc as “possibly carcinogenic.”
Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer likely to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. Women’s risk factors for ovarian cancer can include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, certain genetic mutations, a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, or not having any children.