The basics:
- Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $966M: $16M compensatory, $950M punitive
- Plaintiff, Mae Moore, died from mesothelioma allegedly linked to J&J talc powder
- Company plans to appeal, disputing the verdict and citing talc safety studies
- J&J faces 67K lawsuits over talc-related health claims nationwide
Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who alleged the New Brunswick-headquartered health giant’s talcum-based baby powder gave her a fatal cancer.
Following a trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury concluded Oct. 6 that the company is liable in the death of Mae Moore. The 88-year-old California resident died in December 2021 after developing mesothelioma, Reuters reported.
As part of the verdict, jurors awarded $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages.
According to Moore’s family, her cancer diagnosis came after decades of using J&J’s iconic talc baby powder. They sued the company shortly after her death, claiming the products contained cancer-causing asbestos fibers.
‘Baseless action’
In a statement following this week’s proceedings, J&J Worldwide Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said the company “will immediately appeal this egregious and unconstitutional verdict that is directly at odds—in result and amount—with the vast majority of other talc cases wherein the Company has prevailed, including the defense verdict last week [in South Carolina] against the same plaintiff law firm that brought this baseless action.”
“The plaintiff lawyers in this Moore case based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that never should have been presented to the jury, as it is refuted by decades of studies demonstrating Johnson’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer. The plaintiff lawyers’ business model is to roll the dice in search of jackpot verdicts, fueled by litigation-funded junk science, without regard to the fact that most claimants recover nothing in the tort system,” he said.
“The company is confident that the Moore verdict will be reversed on appeal, for the same reasons as virtually all the other plaintiff verdicts rendered by juries similarly misled by the false narratives fed by experts on the plaintiff’s payroll. The punitive damages amount also on its face is unconstitutional and cannot stand,” Haas said.
Other cases
Trey Branham, a lawyer for Moore’s family, told Reuters that he is “hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will finally accept responsibility for these senseless deaths.”
J&J has maintained its talc products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. In 2020, it stopped selling talc-based powder and switched to a cornstarch-based product, however.
J&J faces 67,000 lawsuits claiming the company’s products caused serious health issues, like mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. J&J has tried to resolve the litigation by placing into bankruptcy a subsidiary it created to handle talc liabilities. Federal courts have rejected that proposal three times.
The latest, $9 billion bankruptcy proposal did not include claims alleging talc caused mesothelioma. While J&J has previously settled some of those lawsuits, it has not struck a nationwide settlement. As a result, many complaints over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in recent months.
Although J&J has been hit with several substantial verdicts in those cases, the company has also won some of the mesothelioma trials – including last week in South Carolina.
J&J also has been successful in reducing some of the awards on appeal, such as an Oregon case where a state judge the company’s motion to throw out a $260 million verdict and hold a new trial.
