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A Los Angeles jury has ordered johnson and johnson To pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died mesotheliomaFinding the company responsible in the latest legal battle over its talc products and their alleged link to cancer.
The family of Mae Moore, a California resident who died in 2021 at 88, launched legal action the same year. They said that johnson and johnson Talc-based baby powder products contained asbestos fibers, which he claimed caused his rare form of cancer.
The jury’s verdict, handed down late Monday, ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $950 million in punitive damages, according to court documents.
It may face substantial award reduction on appeal, as US Supreme Court As previously indicated, punitive damages generally should not exceed nine times.
Eric Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s vice president of worldwide litigation, said the company intended to immediately appeal the decision, describing it as “egregious and unconstitutional.”
“Plaintiff attorneys in this Moore case based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that should never have been presented to the jury,” Haas said.
The company has said its products are safe, not including AsbestosAnd does not cause cancer. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product. Mesothelioma has been linked to asbestos exposure.
Trey Branham, one of the attorneys representing Moore’s family, said after the verdict that his team is “hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will finally accept responsibility for these senseless deaths.”
Johnson & Johnson is Facing lawsuits from more than 67,000 plaintiffs Joe says he was diagnosed with cancer after using baby powder and other talc products, according to court filings. The number of lawsuits alleging talc is due to mesothelioma is a small subset of these cases, which comprise the vast majority. ovarian cancer Claims.
Johnson & Johnson has sought to resolve the litigation through bankruptcy, a proposal that has been rejected three times by federal courts.
Mesothelioma was not part of the final bankruptcy resolution due to lawsuits stemming from Talc. The company has previously settled some of those claims, but not a nationwide settlement, so several lawsuits over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in recent months.
Over the past year, Johnson & Johnson has been hit with several substantial verdicts in mesothelioma cases, but Monday’s is one of the largest. The company has won a few mesothelioma trials, including last week in South Carolina, where a jury found Johnson & Johnson not liable.
The company has been successful in reducing some awards on appeal, including in an Oregon case, where a state judge granted Johnson & Johnson’s motion to throw out a $260 million verdict and seek a new trial.