Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $120 million damages in New York baby powder case

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a New York state judge to pay $120 million in damages to a Brooklyn woman and her husband, after she blamed her cancer on asbestos exposure from using the company’s baby powder.

Justice Gerald Lebovits of the state supreme court in Manhattan reduced the payout from the $325 million a jury awarded Donna Olson, 67, and Robert Olson, 65, in May 2019 following a 14-week trial.

While upholding the jury’s liability finding, Lebovits wrote on Nov. 11 that the damages were too high, and the Olsons could either accept $120 million or have a new trial on damages.

The judge approved the lowered payout on Wednesday, court records show. It includes $15 million of compensatory damages and $105 million of punitive damages, down from an original $25 million and $300 million, respectively.

Johnson & Johnson said it will appeal the verdict, citing “significant legal and evidentiary errors” at the trial.

“We deeply sympathize with anyone suffering from cancer, which is why the facts are so important,” the company said. “We remain confident that our talc is safe, asbestos free, and does not cause cancer.”

Jerome Block, a lawyer for the Olsons, said they were satisfied with the result and confident it would stand.

He also said Donna Olson’s mesothelioma “is at an advanced stage, and we are hoping for the best.”

Donna Olson had testified that she used Johnson’s Baby Powder or Shower to Shower daily for more than 50 years.

Lebovits wrote that jurors could find that Johnson & Johnson was for many years “knowingly deceitful about” or “willfully blind to” potential health risks of its talc products, in part to maintain market share and profit.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a $2.12 billion damages award in Missouri to women who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in its baby powder and other talc products.

Johnson & Johnson has faced intense scrutiny of its raw talc’s safety following a 2018 Reuters investigative report that found it knew for decades about asbestos in its talc.

Internal company records, trial testimony and other evidence show that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, J&J’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)

Johnson & Johnson fails to overturn $2.12 billion baby powder verdict, plans Supreme Court appeal

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Missouri’s highest court on Tuesday refused to consider Johnson & Johnson’s appeal of a $2.12 billion damages award to women who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in its baby powder and other talc products.

The Missouri Supreme Court let stand a June 23 decision by a state appeals court, which upheld a jury’s July 2018 finding of liability but reduced J&J’s payout from $4.69 billion after dismissing claims by some of the 22 plaintiffs.

Johnson & Johnson said it plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It said the verdict was the product of a “fundamentally flawed trial, grounded in a faulty presentation of the facts,” and was “at odds with decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”

Kevin Parker, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement: “Johnson & Johnson should accept the findings of the jury and the appellate court and move forward with proper compensation to the victims.”

Johnson & Johnson said in May it would stop selling its Baby Powder talc in the United States and Canada.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company said last month it faces more than 21,800 lawsuits claiming that its talc products cause cancer because of contamination from asbestos, a known carcinogen.

In its June decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals said it was reasonable to infer from the evidence that Johnson & Johnson “disregarded the safety of consumers” in its drive for profit, despite knowing its talc products caused ovarian cancer. It also found “significant reprehensibility” in the company’s conduct.

Johnson & Johnson has faced intense scrutiny of its baby powder’s safety following a 2018 Reuters investigative report that found it knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its talc.

Internal company records, trial testimony and other evidence show that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, J&J’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.

Johnson & Johnson shares were up 2 cents at $138.71 in late afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis)

Johnson & Johnson to pay more than $100 million to settle over 1,000 talc lawsuits: Bloomberg

Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson will pay more than $100 million to settle over 1,000 lawsuits that allege the company’s Baby Powder caused cancer, Bloomberg news reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the pacts.

J&J faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors claiming its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen. The company has maintained that its talc is safe.

The drugmaker declined to comment on the Bloomberg report but reiterated that its talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.

“In certain circumstances, we do choose to settle lawsuits, which is done without an admission of liability and in no way changes our position regarding the safety of our products,” the company said in a statement.

In May, J&J said it would stop selling its talc in the United States and Canada after demand had fallen in the wake of what it called “misinformation” about the product’s safety amid a barrage of legal challenges.

J&J has faced scrutiny over the safety of its baby powder following an investigative report by Reuters in 2018 that found the company knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its talc.

(Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)