New Trial Ordered in Enfamil Lawsuit Over NEC Diagnosis

Appeals court ruled the jury was given improper instructions on failure to warn laws and shown inappropriate financial data of Mead Johnson’s revenue.

An Illinois appeals court has vacated a landmark verdict returned by a state court jury in a necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) lawsuit brought by a woman whose premature infant died from the devastating gastrointestinal condition after receiving Enfamil formula, indicating that the court provided incorrect instructions before deliberations began.

In March 2024, an Illinois jury awarded $60 million to Jasmine Watson, whose child, Chance Dean, suffered fatal complications after being born prematurely and fed Enfamil. The infant developed NEC and did not survive, leading to a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer, Mead Johnson.

The trial began in late February 2024 and lasted more than four weeks in a St. Clair County court. However, the jury took only two hours to reach a verdict, awarding Watson $25 million in excess of what she asked.

Infant Formula NEC Risks

Necrotizing enterocolitis occurs when harmful bacteria breaches the walls of the intestines, causing portions of the tissue to become inflamed or die. Preterm infants are particularly vulnerable because their intestinal tract is often underdeveloped.

The condition frequently results in the need for emergency surgery while the newborn is still in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which can leave the infant with life-long health problems. However, many infants do not survive a NEC diagnosis.

Both Mead Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, the makers of Similac infant formula, have each faced hundreds of infant formula NEC lawsuits. These claims raise nearly identical allegations that the manufacturers placed their desire for profits ahead of the safety of newborns, aggressively marketing their products despite the knowledge that their cow’s milk-based formula carries a higher NEC risk.

New Infant Formula NEC Trial Ordered

Mead Johnson appealed the Watson verdict to the Appellate Court of Illinois’s Fifth District, arguing that the jury was given improper instructions about the state’s failure to warn laws and that some of the evidence shown to the jury should not have been permitted.

On June 12, the court issued an opinion (PDF) agreeing with Mead Johnson, overturning the $60 million damages award and ordering a new trial. The decision comes after the trial court refused to grant a summary judgment on Mead Johnson’s behalf and denied post-trial motions for a new trial.

According to the appeals court, Watson’s claim indicated Mead Johnson failed to warn her about the risks of NEC. However, Illinois has something known as the “learned intermediary doctrine,” which puts the onus on doctors to inform their patients of potential medical risks, only requiring that the doctors be adequately informed.

The appeals court determined the jury should have never been instructed to consider whether Watson was adequately warned by Mead Johnson.

“The trial court erred when it expressly declined to apply the learned intermediary doctrine and instructed the jury that Mead Johnson’s duty to warn was owed both to Mother and Chance’s physicians.”

– Appellate Court of Illinois

Additionally, the panel also found that financial evidence showing Mead Johnson’s wealth led the jury to make decisions based on what would be large enough to impact the company’s bottom line, as opposed to what damages were appropriate based on its actions.

The case will now be transferred back to the lower court for a new trial.

Watson’s verdict was one of the first state trials to go before a jury. In another trial held that same year, a Missouri jury awarded nearly $500 million to a family whose child suffered a NEC diagnosis allegedly caused by Abbott Laboratories’ Similac formula. Later that year, another Missouri case initially ended in a defense verdict. However, the judge ordered a new trial after finding Abbott improperly introduced certain evidence.

More recently, a Cook County, Illinois, jury awarded four mothers a combined $70 million in damages in a lawsuit involving Similac products. 

Infant Formula NEC Lawsuits

In addition to infant formula NEC lawsuits filed in state courts nationwide, all federal claims have been centralized in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) before U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer in the Northern District of Illinois. She has directed the litigation against both Mead Johnson and Abbott Laboratories through coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Pallmeyer plans to hold a series of bellwether trials based on representative claims that will give the parties more jury assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of claims that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

The first federal trial is set to begin on July 6, with a lawsuit filed by Alexis Inman. A second trial is scheduled to start on August 10, focusing on claims brought by Mary Kelton.

Following those bellwether trials, if the parties fail to negotiate NEC lawsuit settlements for families, it is likely Judge Pallmeyer will start remanding dozens of individual claims back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for separate trial dates.

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