A US court has reversed a decision against infant-formula maker Mead Johnson awarding $60m in damages to a mother of a baby who died from NEC.
In 2024, the Illinois state court in St
Clair County made the award to Jasmine Watson, the parent of Chance Dean, who passed away after being fed the company’s brand of milk for premature babies, Enfamil Premature 24. The court had ruled that US-based Mead Johnson, owned by UK-headquartered CPG group Reckitt Benckiser, was “negligent” because it failed to warn mothers of the risks from the life-threatening necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) disease as a result of consuming that type of formula. Mead Johnson had appealed the decision, with a verdict given in the Appellate Court of Illinois Fifth District last week: “For the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand for a new trial,” the court document detailing proceedings dating back to 2021 read.
No date was specified for the new trial. While the damages had been awarded to Watson on the basis of Mead Johnson’s “strict liability for failure to warn and negligence”, the court last week ruled the demanded presentation of the company’s financial performance and executive compensation was unnecessary in the case. Prior to the initial trial, Mead Johnson had asked for the financial information to be removed from the proceedings but the court denied the motion, “allowing such evidence for purposes Mother characterised as demonstrating motive, knowledge, and corporate priorities”, according to records detailed in the court document.