Mead Johnson Must Face Enfamil NEC Lawsuit in Missouri State Court

Judge rejected the infant formula manufacturer’s attempt to remove an Illinois mother’s NEC lawsuit to the federal court system.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all NEC lawsuits brought against the manufacturers of Enfamil and Similac has rejected an attempt by Mead Johnson to remove an Illinois woman’s claim to the federal court system, indicating that case will be returned to the Missouri state courts, where it was originally filed.

Mead Johnson and Abbott Laboratories face hundreds of Enfamil lawsuits and Similac lawsuits brought by families nationwide, each involving similar allegations that the infant formula manufacturers failed to warn parents and the medical community about the risk that premature babies may develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after they are fed the cow’s milk products.

NEC is a serious and life-threatening complication, which occurs when harmful bacteria infiltrates the walls of a newborn’s intestines, causing portions of the tissue to become inflamed or die. In many cases, infants who develop NEC from infant formula require emergency surgery while still in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and many newborns do not survive NEC.

Although there has been evidence for decades that cow’s milk-based infant formula products increase the risk of NEC for premature babies, lawsuits allege that the manufacturers have aggressively marketed their products for use among these vulnerable infants, providing false and misleading information that minimized the benefits of human breast milk.

Most of the lawsuits brought by families of premature babies diagnosed with NEC are currently pending in the federal court system, where U.S. District District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer is presiding over a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is centralized in the Northern District of Illinois for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. However, some claims have been brought directly in various different state courts nationwide. 

Enfamil Lawsuit Remand Motions

Cadence Collins originally filed her complaint (PDF) in the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis, Missouri in July 2024, indicating that her child, identified with the initials K.H., developed NEC from Enfamil. 

Defendants named in the case included both Mead Johnson and a local sales representative, Jessica Mackey, who is a resident of Missouri.

Shortly after the case was brought, Mead Johnson filed a Notice of Removal (PDF), transferring the claim to the federal court system, where it was subsequently consolidated with other federal Similac and Enfamil NEC lawsuits pending before Judge Pallmeyer. However, Collins fought the removal, arguing that the case was properly filed in Missouri state court, noting that there is a lack of diversity required to establish federal jurisdiction, since Mackey is a resident of Missouri.

Mead Johnson claimed that the inclusion of Mackey was a “fraudulent joinder,” which was only meant to keep the case in state court. However, Pallmeyer issued a memorandum opinion and order (PDF) on July 3, agreeing that the inclusion of Mackey was a tactical one, but determining that it was sufficient to allow the case to move forward in Missouri state court.

“Plaintiff’s decision to include Mackey as a defendant in this action and not other cases arising from Missouri may well be, in Plaintiff’s counsel’s words, ‘strategic’ and for ‘jurisdictional’ reasons. But the court’s analysis under fraudulent joinder is an objective one, looking only to whether Plaintiff has a ‘reasonable possibility of success’ against the non-diverse defendant. Further developments in this litigation, such as a failure by Plaintiff to prosecute the case against Mackey, may provide a new basis for a finding of fraudulent joinder.”

-Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, Memorandum Opinion and Order

On the same day the Court returned Collins’ case to state court, Judge Pallmeyer issued another order (PDF) denying similar efforts by a group of six plaintiffs who filed their claims in Pennsylvania state court. 

All six claims were filed on March 24, 2022, against Mead Johnson, Abbott and the hospitals where the infants were born. Those local hospital defendants were subsequently dismissed from the lawsuit, which the manufacturers argued established federal jurisdiction. Judge Pallmeyer agreed, noting that the defendants could now remove all but one of those six claims to her court.

Infant Formula NEC Lawsuits July 2025 Update

To help the parties gauge how federal juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout hundreds of claims brought by parents across the U.S., Judge Pallmeyer is currently preparing a series of bellwether lawsuits for early trial dates in the federal MDL.

The first bellwether trial is currently scheduled to begin on August 8, involving a NEC lawsuit filed by a Maryland mother, Keosha Diggs, who indicates that her child developed the condition after being fed both Similac and Enfamil. 

A second bellwether trial is already planned, involving claims brought by Alexis Inman, whose child died after being fed Mead Johnson’s Enfamil products shortly after birth. No trial date has yet been set, but dispositive motions have been given an August 25 deadline, with responses due by September 22, and replies due by October 6, 2025.

The bellwether cases will be closely watched, since the average payouts awarded by juries in these early trials will likely have a substantial impact on the amount that Abbott and Mead Johnson may be required to pay in NEC formula lawsuit settlements, to avoid hundreds of additional claims going before juries.

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