Friday, October 20, 2017

Allen Smith's luck goes cold. Court reverses $72 million verdict.

A Missouri appeals court showed Ridgeland attorney Allen Smith, Jr. another reversal of a huge jury award in his talc powder jihad. Mr. Smith racked up an impressive series of wins in lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson in St. Louis over products liability claims involving talc powder. However, the U.S. Supreme Court threw a huge freeze over his success in one day. Reuters reported in June:

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in a case involving Bristol-Myers Squibb Co that state courts cannot hear claims against companies that are not based in the state when the alleged injuries did not occur there. 

The ruling immediately led a St. Louis judge at J&J's urging to declare a mistrial in the latest talc case, in which two of the three women at issue were from out of state. It also could imperil prior verdicts and cases that have yet to go to trial. Rest of article.
 St. Louis juries gave huge awards to Mr. Smith's clients.  However, a mistrial was declared in one trial last summer after the Supreme Court issued its ruling.  The Supreme Court's holding forced a Missouri appeals court to reverse a $72 million verdict for one of Mr. Smith's clients.  The St. Louis Dispatch reported Wednesday:

 The Missouri Eastern District appeals court on Tuesday threw out a $72 million jury verdict for a woman who claimed her longtime use of baby powder and other Johnson & Johnson products contributed to ovarian cancer that killed her.

The ruling could kill three other recent St. Louis jury verdicts of more than $200 million combined against the New Jersey-based health care giant, which has also appealed the cases.

In a statement, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman said the company is pleased with the opinion and is continuing its appeals.

“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,” the statement said....

The appeals court Tuesday ruled 3-0 that Jacqueline Fox’s lawsuit lacked jurisdiction in Missouri because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that imposed limits on where injury lawsuits can be filed. The Bristol-Myers Squibb case said non-California residents could not file claims there against the New York-based maker of the blood thinner Plavix, ruling that establishing a lawsuit’s jurisdiction requires a stronger connection between the forum state and a plaintiff’s claims.

Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., died in 2015, about four months before her trial was held in St. Louis Circuit Court. She was among 65 plaintiffs — of whom only two were from Missouri — who joined in the lawsuit. A jury in February 2016 awarded her $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages.

 The appeals court ruling Tuesday vacated Fox’s lawsuit entirely instead of sending it back to the circuit court, finding the court has no authority to “rewind the case so as to supplement the pre-trial record to establish jurisdiction under the new standard.”

Thomas Stewart, a St. Louis University professor who runs the law school’s trial advocacy program, said the appeals court had no choice but to vacate Fox’s lawsuit, given recent court decisions on jurisdiction. He said the three other verdicts, given their similarities to Fox’s case, are likely to be wiped out. “I can’t imagine that they’re going to hold on to those verdicts,” he said.  Rest of article.
 A far cry from when Mr. Smith went running to WLBT with his success:

MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the sad things about our legal system is the sometimes) need for victim compensation when wrong doing occurs, balanced against bonanza verdicts thrown out by lottery winning juries that vastly over compensate. All this seems to accomplish is the creation of overzealous lawyers, who fight each other for clients who are in need or also greedy and quick to ask for outlandish verdicts. What usually happens is aggressive law school graduates turn into very wealthy shysters. America! Land of the TV Lawyer.

Anonymous said...

The most talented lawyers in America are meeting right now trying to get ahead of this debacle.

Watch for legislation to protect J And J.

This will be over before you have to have your shower today.

Anonymous said...

"freeze" I see what you did there

Anonymous said...

"[A] huge freeze...." I see what you did there. Ha!

Anonymous said...

8:27 -- I'm not an attorney, but agree fully with you. Attorneys can stand between the common person and injustice......they can also cast a terrible light on their profession, through greed and the quest for notoriety and fame. It has to be hard if you're in category 1 and fighting the perception of category 2 all the time.

Anonymous said...

R. Allen Smith and Booser 14 just keep on losing. Smith is a good trial lawyer.Booster 14 is just a loser.

Anonymous said...

However, the U.S. Supreme Court threw a huge freeze over his success in one day.

Well played.

Anonymous said...


Been a bad couple of months for the bear bagman/plaintiffs lawyer. Funny how karma works.

Shame Nutt's suit was settled. The real dirt about the dirtiest program in college football was coming out. 88 page complaint is very interesting. However, the suit by the dirty oxford tee shirt shop guy is still in the works and it will be fertile ground for dirty revelations. I suspect it too will go away. Too much potential for more cheating crap to be revealed.

Where have old Archie and Vitter been while all this is going on?

Anonymous said...

@ 3:16, if you believe that Ole Miss is "the dirtiest program in college football", you must not know much about college football. No one is clean and Ole Miss is not among the dirtiest in a 3 state area.

Anonymous said...


@3:43, I believe it was in a recent article in the Atlanta Constitution Journal that that listed ole miss in the 5 biggest college sports scandals.
Since you apparently believe you know a lot about college football, please share the dirtiest programs in "...3 state area."



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