A Los Angeles jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the household of a girl who died from mesothelioma, discovering the firm liable within the newest trial alleging its talc merchandise trigger most cancers.
The household of Mae Moore, a California resident who died at age 88 in 2021, sued the firm the identical yr, claiming J&J’s talc child powder merchandise contained asbestos fibers that prompted her uncommon most cancers.
The jury late on Monday ordered J&J to pay $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, based on courtroom filings.
The decision may very well be lowered on enchantment because the US Supreme Court docket has discovered that punitive damages ought to typically be not more than 9 instances compensatory damages.
Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice chairman of litigation, mentioned in an announcement that the firm plans to right away enchantment, calling the decision “egregious and unconstitutional.”
“The plaintiff attorneys on this Moore case primarily based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that by no means ought to have been introduced to the jury,” Haas mentioned.
The firm has mentioned its merchandise are protected, don’t include asbestos, and don’t trigger most cancers. J&J stopped promoting talc-based child powder within the US in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product. Mesothelioma has been linked to asbestos publicity.
Trey Branham, one of many attorneys representing Moore’s household, mentioned after the decision that his staff is “hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will lastly settle for accountability for these mindless deaths.”
J&J is dealing with lawsuits from greater than 67,000 plaintiffs who say they have been recognized with most cancers after utilizing child powder and different talc merchandise, based on courtroom filings.
The variety of lawsuits alleging talc prompted mesothelioma is a small subset of those instances, with the overwhelming majority involving ovarian most cancers claims.
J&J has sought to resolve the litigation by means of chapter, a proposal that has been rejected thrice by federal courts.
Lawsuits alleging talc prompted mesothelioma weren’t a part of the final chapter proposal.
The firm has beforehand settled a few of these claims however has not struck a nationwide settlement, so many lawsuits over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in latest months.
Prior to now yr, J&J has been hit with a number of substantial verdicts in mesothelioma instances, however Monday’s is among the many largest.
The firm has received a few of the mesothelioma trials, together with final week in South Carolina, the place a jury discovered J&J not liable.
The firm has been profitable in decreasing a few of the awards on enchantment, together with in a single Oregon case the place a state decide granted J&J’s movement to throw out a $260 million verdict and maintain a brand new trial.
