As consumers, and connoisseurs, of personal jurisdiction
precedent, we write today to consider the latest jurisdictional
mess that has arisen, this time in talc litigation. Two courts,
deciding the same jurisdictional issue on the same set of facts in
the same week, have reached diametrically opposed decisions. The
current contretemps concerns "Shimmer" – a minor
J&J talc product that, for a few years was made by a contractor
located in Missouri. Because of the Missouri contractor, this
product has taken on absurdly outsized importance, as plaintiffs
strain to create a "loose and spurious" form of general
jurisdiction post-Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior
Court, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017)
("BMS"), that could keep the talc claims
of litigation tourist plaintiffs from around the country in
notoriously plaintiff-friendly St. Louis City.
