A Missouri appeals court has reduced a talcum powder verdict against Johnson & Johnson by more than half, even while ruling that the company knowingly sold a product that caused cancer.
In the ruling announced Tuesday, the Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals rejected the company’s request to throw out a St. Louis jury’s verdict that awarded 22 plaintiffs $4.7 billion.
But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the appeals court reduced the verdict to $2.1 billion because some plaintiffs were from out of state and should not have been included. Five of the 22 plaintiffs are Missouri residents or were before they died.