A Texas appeals court overturned on Wednesday a multimillion-dollar verdict against the drug maker Merck & Company in a case involving its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

A Texas jury awarded $32 million to the widow of 71-year-old Leonel Garza in April 2006. That later was cut to about $7.75 million under damage caps in the state.

On Wednesday, the Fourth Court of Appeals in Texas overturned the verdict, ruling that Mr. Garza’s family had not proved that his use of Vioxx caused blood clots that the family’s lawyers argued resulted in his heart attack. The opinion was signed by Justice Sandee Bryan Marion. Mr. Garza died after taking Vioxx for less than a month.

During the trial, Merck lawyers argued that Mr. Garza’s heart attack was a result of his 23 years of heart disease.

“Today’s decision reaffirms that there is simply no reliable scientific evidence that Vioxx caused Mr. Garza’s heart attack,” Theodore V. H. Mayer, a lawyer for Merck, said in a statement.

After the trial, a juror admitted borrowing money from Mr. Garza’s widow, although that did not seem to have been a factor in the appellate court decision.

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after research showed that the painkiller doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. That set off an avalanche of lawsuits against Merck, which has a $4.85 billion settlement pending to end the bulk of the personal injury suits.