ST. LOUIS — A $72 million talcum powder verdict leveled against Johnson & Johnson last year has been vacated by a state appeals court.
The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District has found that in light of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) v. Superior Court of California, a St. Louis city circuit court erred when it exercised personal jurisdiction over J&J because the claims of an Alabama woman did not arise out of the company's activities in Missouri.
In February 2016, a jury in Circuit Judge Rex Burlison's court entered a judgment of $10 million in compensatory damages and $62 million in punitive damages to the estate of Jacqueline Fox, who had resided in Birmingham, Ala. She died in 2015, four months before trial started on claims that her use of J&J talcum powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer.