Landmark Olson Grimsley Premature Infant Formula Case Earns Place in Law.com’s Top 100 Verdicts of 2024

$60 million verdict in baby’s death recognized by VerdictSearch

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Olson Grimsley has earned a place on Law.com’s Top 100 Verdicts of 2024 for its groundbreaking $60 million trial victory against Mead Johnson Nutrition, the manufacturer of Enfamil Premature Formula.

On March 13, 2024, the company was found liable for negligence and failing to warn of the risk that its cow’s milk-based formula could cause necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants.

A St. Clair, Ill., jury returned the verdict after less than two hours of deliberation, awarding plaintiff Jasmine Watson $60 million for the loss of her baby, Chance Dean, to NEC.

“This case was about obtaining justice for Jasmine, who will never get her son back,” said Olson Grimsley partner Sean Grimsley, who led the trial team. “It was also about holding Mead Johnson and other companies accountable for their negligence so that no other family has to endure what the Watsons went through.”

The trial was the first among hundreds of lawsuits nationwide claiming the formula caused NEC, an intestinal disease that affects mostly premature babies.

The Olson Grimsley trial team of Mr. Grimsley, partner Kenzo Kawanabe, partner Abby Hinchcliff, associate Samara Hoose and litigation manager Beth Costner served as lead trial counsel, partnering with Ben Whiting and Amelia Frankel of Keller Postman LLC and Dave Cates of The Cates Law Firm, LLC.

Law.com’s Top 100 Verdicts are compiled by VerdictSearch, which ranks verdicts by gross award calculated by the jury. To view the full list, click here.

The case was Watson, et al. v. Mead Johnson & Co. LLC, Case No. 2021L001032 in the Circuit Court of the 20th Judicial District in St. Clair County, Illinois.

About Olson Grimsley

Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC is a national law firm headquartered in Denver, with the mission of holding the powerful to account. Before founding the firm, the team of talented litigators handled some of the country’s most significant civil rights, antitrust, mass tort, consumer, intellectual property, and environmental cases in courthouses from California to New York, and from rural Arkansas to the U.S. Supreme Court. They are now focusing their expertise on advocating for clients in their most consequential trials and appeals nationwide. More: olsongrimsley.com.