Justices Sticking to Punitive Damage Limits After J&J Case (2)

U.S. Supreme Court precedent limiting punitive damages appears to be safe after the justices left in place a $1.6 billion award against Johnson & Johnson in a blockbuster cancer lawsuit.

The justices may be “content with precedent on the subject” and how lower courts are applying it, said attorney Anthony Michael Sabino, who also teaches business law at St. John’s University.

The pharmaceutical giant invoked earlier Supreme Court rulings in the dispute over damages awarded by a Missouri jury to a woman claiming its iconic baby powder was tainted with cancer-causing asbestos.

J&J said the punitive award in Johnson ...