A Federal jury today found that the Procter & Gamble Company was negligent and offered a defective product when it put Rely tampons on the market, but it did not award any damages to a Colorado teen-ager who sued the company.
After nearly 20 hours of deliberation over four days, the fiveman, three-woman jury said it found the Cincinnati-based company at fault for inadequately testing the Rely tampon and for marketing a defective product.
It did not find, however, that Procter & Gamble had violated any expressed or implied warranty on the product, which was the third charge in the suit. Nor did the jury award medical expenses, actual damages or punitive damages to Deletha Dawn Lampshire, 18 years old, a University of Denver student who said she became ill with toxic shock syndrome in May 1980, several days after using Rely tampons. She and her parents had sought $25 million in damages.
''I guess we won,'' said Miss Lampshire's attorney, Jon Kidneigh. He had said from the start of the two-week trial that if Miss Lampshire won the case, Procter & Gamble ''would have some serious problems.'' No Company Decision on Appeal
Thomas Calder, the lead attorney for Procter & Gamble in the case, said, ''We are disappointed with anything that is not a complete vindication of Rely, and we're reviewing our options.'' He said he did not know if the company would appeal the verdict.
It was the first trial of more than 400 cases filed against Procter & Gamble asserting that Rely caused the disease. The company took the tampons off the market in 1980.
Symptons of the sometimes fatal illness, which usually strikes women of childbearing age and which has been linked with tampon use, include fever, low blood pressure, rash and swollen mucous membranes.
Several of the pending cases involve deaths of Rely users, and Mr. Kidneigh said today many of those cases were stronger than the Lampshire case. 1,500 Cases of Illness Reported
The Federal Centers for Disease Control have reported more than 1,500 cases of toxic shock syndrome, including 84 deaths. When Federal District Judge Sherman Finesilver read the verdicts, Miss Lampshire smiled first at her parents and then at her lawyers. However, when the judge later read that no damages had been awarded, she looked stunned momentarily, then dropped her gaze to the floor and sat silently.
''I always felt good about taking them to court,'' she said later. ''The money wasn't important at all. We went into this thing hoping we'd get cab fare.''
Mr. Kidneigh, however, expressed surprised at the jury's decision not to award damages, saying it was ''the craziest verdict I've ever gotten.'' Company Said Woman Had Flu
The suit charged that Miss Lampshire became violently ill shortly after using the tampons in May 1980. Procter & Gamble contended that Miss Lampshire had had the flu, not toxic shock, and that no definitive link between Rely and the ailment had ever been established.
Mr. Kidneigh argued in his closing statement and throughout the two-week trial that she had suffered permanent physical and emotional damage as a result of the illness. He said the damage prevented her from ''leading or ever hoping to lead a normal life.''
However, in his closing statement, Mr. Calder read from an essay Miss Lampshire wrote in late 1980, six months after she became ill, in which she listed many accomplishments and activities. ''Does that sound to you like a woman who has been held back or deterred by an illness?'' Mr. Calder asked the jury.
Miss Lampshire's case was built around the contention that Procter & Gamble failed to perform adequate clinical tests before marketing the tampon and that the company added cellulose to the product in 1978. Mr. Kidneigh contended that the cellulose changed to sugar when the tampon was in use, allowing the bacteria that caused toxic shock syndrome to feed and grow.
Procter & Gamble, however, said the breakdown in chemical composition that occurred as a result of the new ingredient had been inconsequential.
Rely was taken off the market in September 1980 after the disease centers reported that most victims of toxic shock syndrome had used the Rely tampon.