Big talcum-powder award thrown out

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals court 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. The ruling has thrown the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.

The Missouri Eastern District Court ruled that Missouri was not the proper jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Alabama. 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 appeals court said state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where the alleged injuries occurred.

More than 1,000 others have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson, which is based in Brunswick, New Jersey. In four of five trials held so far, jurors awarded more than $300 million combined. Only two of the 64 cases attached to Fox’s case lived in Missouri.

A spokeswoman said after Tuesday’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson is confident its appeals will be successful. Ireland’s south coast with gusts of almost 100 miles an hour.

Schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were closed for a second day as authorities assessed the damage from the worst storm to hit Ireland in decades. Irish authorities said it could take several days to restore power to 330,000 homes.