JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Chamber of Commerce, along with several other groups, is asking the state Supreme Court to review a case against Johnson & Johnson alleging that the manufacturer's talcum powder brand is made with cancer-causing asbestos.
The group's amicus brief wants the high court to look at the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District's June decision upholding a verdict that ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a large damages and punitive damages award to plaintiffs who claimed the company’s talcum powder caused cancer. The appeals court reduced the $4.7 billion judgment to $2.24 billion, but upheld the verdict.
In the amicus brief, the organizations argue that the appeals court was correct in ruling that the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over the claims involving two out-of-state plaintiffs, but had issue with the court upholding the decisions with the other 15 plaintiffs.
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"This court found a nexus to Missouri sufficient to create specific personal jurisdiction because one of the defendants contracted with a Missouri entity to manufacture one of the products that plaintiffs used," the brief states. "That is far too thin a thread to satisfy the Fourteenth Amendment due-process limitations on personal jurisdiction established by the United States Supreme Court."
The brief states that the harm the plaintiffs' claim has nothing to do with a contract between one of the defendants and a single Missouri entity. It notes that the ruling will cause many companies to consider whether or not to do business with the state and could cause major harm to Missouri businesses.
A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson says the allegations are unfounded.
"We are grateful to the court for [its] time," a company spokesperson said in a statement provided to the St. Louis Record. "However, we continue to believe this was a fundamentally flawed trial, grounded in a faulty presentation of the facts, and will pursue further review of this case by the Supreme Court of Missouri. We deeply sympathize with anyone suffering from cancer, which is why the facts are so important. We remain confident that our talc is safe, asbestos free, and does not cause cancer."