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Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2019

#6: McCants v. Vitacost Inc.

Jury rejects claims green tea extract caused man’s catastrophic liver failure

Defense attorneys: Edward Nicklaus (pictured)

Vitacost closing

Link to video of the trial: https://cvn.com/proceedings/mccants-v-vitacostcom-inc-trial-2019-03-25

Why it made the list:

A state court jury in April cleared a South Florida-based online nutrition company of responsibility for the catastrophic liver damage a Texas man suffered after taking the company’s green tea extract.

The Florida state 15th Circuit Court jury, in Palm Beach County, deliberated for about 4 hours before finding in favor of Vitacost, a Kroger-owned nutrition company, on negligence and failure-to-warn claims surrounding its green tea supplements.

James McCants was forced to undergo a liver transplant in 2014, months after beginning to take Vitacost’s green tea extract supplements. McCants, 54, claims the product damaged his liver and kidneys.

During closing arguments, McCants’s attorney requested more than $6.2 million in medical expenses alone, plus an unspecified amount for pain and suffering.

The nine-day trial turned largely on whether Vitacost bore a duty to warn about potential liver problems linked to green tea extract and whether a specific warning could have prevented McCants’s liver failure.

The defense successfully argued Vitacost’s general warnings about the supplement were sufficient, and that there was no direct proof that the company’s supplements caused McCants’s liver failure.