CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Jake Plattenberger delivering his closing argument
St. Louis, MO - A Missouri state court jury handed down a $495 million verdict on Friday in the first lawsuit to go to trial over allegations that Abbott Laboratories' cows milk-based baby formula can damage a baby’s intestinal tract, and the full trial was recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The St. Louis jury awarded $95 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages to plaintiff Margo Gill, who claims her infant daughter developed a dangerous condition called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after receiving Abbott’s Similac brand formula while in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Gill’s attorneys argued throughout the trial that Abbott knew the formula could increase the risk for developing NEC but failed to adequately disclose that information while aggressively marketing it for use in hospital settings. Abbott maintained that Gill’s daughter’s injuries were caused by lack of oxygen from a traumatic birthing process, and that they occurred before she ever received any formula.
Abbott issued a statement after the trial saying the company disagrees with the verdict and would seek to challenge it on appeal.
The trial kicked off on July 9 and was just the second in the country over alleged NEC-related risks from cows milk-based formulas. Earlier this year an Illinois jury awarded $60 million in a similar lawsuit filed against Reckitt Benckiser unit Mead Johnson. CVN recorded the full Missouri trial gavel-to-gavel, and it is available for unlimited on-demand viewing, including digital images of exhibits and demonstratives shown in the courtroom and all expert witness testimony.
Subscribers to CVN’s online video library get unlimited access this recent trial, including hundreds of others ranging from major mass tort trials involving products like baby powder and herbicides, to automotive product liability trials, to medical malpractice trials and cases involving “everyday” slip-and-falls and automotive negligence cases.
Thousands of similar NEC-related baby formula trials are pending in courts throughout the United States, including federal multi-district litigation centralized in Illinois with the first federal baby formula bellwether trial scheduled for early 2025. The next state court trial is scheduled for September in St. Louis.
Subscribers to CVN’s online video library get unlimited access this recent trial, including hundreds of others ranging from major mass tort trials involving products like baby powder and herbicides, to automotive product liability trials, to medical malpractice trials and cases involving “everyday” slip-and-falls and automotive negligence cases.
The plaintiff in the St. Louis case was represented by attorneys from TorHoerman Law LLC’s Edwardsville, Illinois office and Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC’s St. Louis office.
Abbott was represented at trial by attorneys from Thompson Coburn LLP’s and HelperBroom LLC’s St. Louis offices, and Winston & Strawn LLP’s Chicago office, along with attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Chicago and Los Angeles offices and Jones Day’s Washington, D.C. office.
The trial took place before Judge Michael Noble.
The case is captioned Margo Gill, on behalf of herself as next friend of her minor child RD v. Abbott Laboratories, et al. case number 2322-CC01251 in Missouri’s 22nd Judicial Circuit.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
