ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, has affirmed a St. Louis trial court’s decision to grant a new trial in a products-liability lawsuit involving allegations that preterm infant formulas caused a minor to develop necrotizing enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal condition.
The appellate court’s Division Two issued its decision on Aug. 11, affirming the order setting aside a jury verdict involving the companies accused in the lawsuit.
Judge Michael S. Wright wrote the opinion, joined by Presiding Judge John P. Torbitzky and Judge Virginia W. Lay.
The case was brought by K.W., a minor, through his next friend, Elizabeth Whitfield. The lawsuit named Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Mead Johnson & Company LLC and Mead Johnson Nutrition Company as defendants. The court referred to those companies collectively as the appellants.
According to the court’s summary, K.W.’s action alleged that preterm infant formulas made by the companies caused him to develop necrotizing enterocolitis.
The case was tried over four weeks in St. Louis Circuit Court before Judge Michael W. Noble.
At the conclusion of that trial, the jury found in favor of the companies.
K.W. then sought a new trial, filing a motion after the verdict. The trial court granted that request on several grounds, including its determination that the jury’s verdict was against the weight of the evidence.
The companies appealed the new-trial order, asking the Missouri Court of Appeals to review the trial court’s decision.
The appellate court upheld the order, concluding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.
Because that ground supported the trial court’s decision, the appellate court affirmed the judgment.
The ruling means the appellate court did not disturb the St. Louis Circuit Court order granting K.W. a new trial.
The appellate decision addressed the trial court’s authority to grant that relief after the jury had returned a verdict for the defendants in the four-week trial.
The court’s summary identifies the case as an appeal arising from a products-liability lawsuit, rather than an appeal from the jury’s original verdict alone.
The central appellate question was the trial court’s post-verdict decision to allow the case to be tried again.
In affirming, the appellate panel determined that the trial court acted within its discretion in finding the jury’s verdict to be against the weight of the evidence. The court did not need to overturn the lower court’s new-trial ruling.
The companies were represented on appeal by William R. Price Jr., Maureen Bryan, Patrick J. Kenny, Paul L. Brusati, Colleen A. Kinsey, Angela B. Kennedy, Phyllis A. Jones, Emily Ullman, Sarah Harrington, Robert W. Stephens, Booker T. Shaw, Terrence J. O’Toole Jr., Megan S. Heinsz, James F. Bennett, Emilee M. Bramstedt, Thomas J. Magee, William J. Rankin, Stephen D. D’Amore, Linda T. Coberly and Samuel Zuidema.
K.W. and the other respondents were represented by John G. Simon, Timothy M. Cronin, Elizabeth C. McNulty, Kevin M. Carnie Jr., Patrick R. McPhail, Mary Simon, Nathan Perlmutter, Tor A. Hoerman and Jennifer J. Artman.
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Division Two case number: ED113441
