Missouri Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

A St. Louis jury returned a $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson and Johnson on behalf of 22 women who developed ovarian cancer after years of using the company's talcum powder products, with Thomas K. Neill of Gray, Ritter and Graham, P.C. serving on the plaintiff trial team.

Gray Ritter Graham attorney Don Downing served as one of four court-appointed national co-lead counsel in the Syngenta MIR162 MDL, securing a $217.7 million Kansas jury verdict in 2017 and a $1.51 billion class action settlement in 2018 for more than 600,000 U.S. corn farmers, grain handlers, and ethanol producers.

Gray Ritter Graham's Don Downing served as court-appointed co-lead counsel in a massive multidistrict lawsuit against Bayer CropScience over the 2006 contamination of the U.S. long-grain rice supply by an unapproved genetically modified strain, producing a $750 million settlement for more than 11,000 rice farmers across five Southern states.

A St. Louis County jury returned a $745 million verdict against nitrous oxide distributor United Brands and local head shop Coughing Cardinal after finding the companies conspired to sell Whip-It! canisters as an inhalant to a driver who passed out behind the wheel and fatally struck 25-year-old Marissa Politte outside her workplace.

A Champaign County jury returned a $535 million verdict -- the largest known single-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history -- against a psychiatric facility that failed to prevent the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by another adolescent resident.

A St. Louis jury found trailer manufacturer Wabash National 65 percent at fault and awarded $462 million, most of it punitive, after a defective rear underride guard let a car slide beneath a trailer and kill two young fathers; a judge later cut the total to about $119.5 million.

A St. Louis jury awarded $462 million against trailer maker Wabash National after its defective rear-impact guard failed and allowed a car to slide beneath a trailer on I-55, killing Taron Tailor, 30, and Nicholas Perkins, 23, in 2019.

A St. Louis jury returned a $462 million verdict against trailer maker Wabash National for a 2019 underride crash that killed two young fathers, with the award later reduced to approximately $119.5 million by the trial judge.

Don Downing chaired the court-appointed Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the federal dicamba MDL and negotiated a $400 million settlement with Monsanto/Bayer covering yield losses suffered by soybean farmers across the country from 2015 through 2020.

Humphrey, Farrington and McClain secured a proposed $250 million settlement on behalf of roughly 207,000 Jackson County homeowners whose property-tax assessments illegally exceeded Missouri's 15% annual cap in 2023 and 2024.

Tom Cartmell served as lead trial counsel for San Francisco Unified School District in the first JUUL bellwether trial against Altria; after plaintiffs rested, Altria agreed to pay $235 million to resolve roughly 6,000 pending e-vapor claims nationwide.

Don Downing led the nation's first certified Vioxx consumer fraud class action on behalf of up to 300,000 Missouri purchasers, securing a $220 million settlement with Merck under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.

As co-lead class counsel, Kenneth McClain helped secure a $145 million settlement, approved by a federal judge in October 2024, for roughly nine million Kia and Hyundai owners whose vehicles lacked standard engine immobilizers.

A Cole County jury awarded $113.7 million to roughly 13,000 Missouri corrections officers who were required to clear security checkpoints and retrieve equipment before and after their paid shifts without receiving a minute of compensation for that time.

A four-day trial ended with a $109.2 million verdict against LaFarge North America after Simon Law proved the supplier knowingly sold Gleeson Asphalt base rock that did not meet the grade it was labeled and paid for.

A Jackson County jury returned a $108.6 million verdict for the parents of a woman who died from sepsis after her husband's religious group prevented her from receiving medical care during a botched home birth.

A St. Louis jury awarded $105 million to tire technician Randy Dorman after a Bridgestone/Firestone RH5 multi-piece truck wheel explosively separated during inflation, fracturing his face, both arms, and wrist, while internal company documents showed Firestone engineers had tracked nearly 100 similar incidents for decades.

A Callaway County jury awarded Beth Mayhew and her husband $82.3 million after a truck driver hit their vehicle on I-70 while driving with both feet on the dashboard and holding an iPad to watch videos.

A Platte County jury returned a record $70 million verdict after an eight-year-old boy died and his six-year-old sister was seriously injured when a distracted driver rear-ended their grandparents' car in a highway construction zone.

A New York jury awarded $60 million to business sellers Dennis Demetre and Lori Lewis after finding HMS Holdings Corp. breached the earn-out provisions of a stock purchase agreement; HMS later settled the judgment for $20 million.

A Baltimore jury returned a $59.7 million verdict against Toyota after a passenger riding with his seat fully reclined slid beneath his seatbelt in a head-on collision, losing both legs above the knee -- a result the court later reduced to $16 million, which Maryland's appellate court upheld in 2003.

The Popham Law Firm secured a $57 million settlement on behalf of more than 1,700 Sprint employees who alleged the company's automated performance system unlawfully targeted workers over 40 during a series of mass layoffs -- at the time the largest ADEA class settlement in the District of Kansas.

A St. Louis County jury awarded $55.4 million to more than 400 investors in InnerPoint Energy Corp. after Simon Law proved that company insiders, including descendants of Anheuser-Busch co-founder Eberhard Anheuser, concealed a rising Michigan energy asset while telling shareholders their investments were worthless.

Maurice Graham of Gray, Ritter and Graham secured a $55 million class action settlement in Doyle v. Fluor for Herculaneum, Missouri homeowners whose properties were contaminated by lead emissions from the Doe Run smelter.