A Los Angeles jury found Johnson & Johnson was not negligent in selling talc-based baby powder, delivering a defense win in a case viewed as a bellwether for thousands of remaining talc lawsuits.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Los Angeles jury has found that Johnson & Johnson was not negligent in selling its talc-based baby powder and other cosmetic talc products, handing the company a major trial victory in litigation alleging the products caused ovarian cancer.
The June 5 verdict came in a case brought by the families of three women who died of ovarian cancer after using Johnson’s baby powder. The plaintiffs alleged that talc in the company’s products was at risk of containing asbestos and was linked to the women’s cancers.
The case involved the families of Mary Owens, Bonnie Tienken and Geneva Williams. Because thousands of similar claims remain unresolved, the trial was closely watched as a bellwether for future litigation.
“Talc litigation is a plaintiff-lawyer driven fake tort, premised on junk science,” Johnson & Johnson Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said after the verdict.
Ari Friedman, a lawyer representing one of the plaintiffs, said the outcome was disappointing.
More than 67,000 plaintiffs have sued Johnson & Johnson over allegations that its talc products are connected to ovarian cancer. The company denies the allegations, maintains that its talc products are safe and asbestos-free, and says it has prevailed in much of the ovarian cancer litigation. Johnson & Johnson has argued that 16 of the 17 ovarian cancer cases tried over the past 11 years were successfully overturned.
The Los Angeles verdict adds to that record.
Johnson & Johnson also faces lawsuits from thousands of people who developed mesothelioma, a rare cancer affecting the lining that covers the outer surface of some organs and is usually associated with inhaling or ingesting asbestos fibers. The company has privately settled about 95 percent of those cases and has included language stating that the settlements are not admissions of wrongdoing.
The company has won some talc-related cases outright, including a mesothelioma trial in Oklahoma last week. Other juries have issued large awards for plaintiffs. Johnson & Johnson has appealed those verdicts and has succeeded in getting many reduced or overturned. Several appeals remain pending.
The company has tried since 2021 to resolve the mass tort claims through a bankruptcy strategy. Johnson & Johnson created a new subsidiary, assigned it the talc liability and placed the subsidiary into bankruptcy. As part of that effort, the company proposed an $8.9 billion trust fund to resolve claims alleging that its talc products caused cancer.
Courts rejected that approach, finding it an abuse of the bankruptcy system because the subsidiary was not in genuine financial distress and was backed by Johnson & Johnson. The courts concluded the move was an attempt to shield the parent company from liability.
Johnson & Johnson argued that a mass-resolution process would have been better for claimants because the remaining tens of thousands of cases could take another 3,000 years to be heard individually. After the bankruptcy strategy failed, the company was forced to continue defending the cases in the regular court system under its own name.
Concerns about talc first emerged between the 1950s and 1970s, though major litigation did not begin until the late 1990s. The first known mesothelioma lawsuit was filed in 1997 by Darlene Coker, but it was dropped because of insufficient evidence.
The first major ovarian cancer lawsuit was filed in 2009 by Deane Berg. In 2013, Berg became the first plaintiff to obtain a liability verdict linking talc to ovarian cancer, though she was not awarded damages.
Public attention increased after Reuters published a December article that Johnson & Johnson said misrepresented its baby powder and the science surrounding talc. The company said the article “misled its readers by printing inaccurate statements, withholding crucial information that otherwise undermines its thesis.”
After that report, the Food and Drug Administration tested 50 cosmetic products for asbestos, including Johnson’s baby powder. In October 2019, the FDA said independent testing found asbestos in one lot of the product.
“The FDA is advising consumers not to use this specific lot of the product,” the agency said at the time. Another lot tested negative for asbestos.
Johnson & Johnson later made what it described as a commercial decision to phase talc out of its baby powder because of declining demand. The product has been talc-free in the United States and Canada since 2020 and in all remaining countries since 2023.
Johnson’s baby product line, including its newer cornstarch-based baby powder, is now under Kenvue.
The Los Angeles verdict gives Johnson & Johnson another defense win as it continues to fight unresolved talc claims in court. The broader litigation remains active, with tens of thousands of ovarian cancer claims still pending and additional appeals moving through the courts.
Original article
Comments