Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who passed away from mesothelioma. The jury found the company responsible in a recent trial alleging that its talc products can lead to cancer.
The family of Mae Moore, a California resident who died at the age of 88 in 2021, filed a lawsuit against the company in the same year. They claimed that Johnson & Johnson’s talc baby powder products contained asbestos fibers, which resulted in her rare cancer. The jury’s decision, delivered late on Monday, included $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages.
It is possible that the verdict may be reduced on appeal, as the US Supreme Court has indicated that punitive damages should generally not exceed nine times the compensatory damages.
Erik Haas, the worldwide vice president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson, stated that the company intends to appeal the ruling, denouncing it as “egregious and unconstitutional.” Haas criticized the plaintiff lawyers for relying on what he referred to as “junk science” during the Moore case.
Despite the allegations, Johnson & Johnson maintains that its products are safe, free of asbestos, and do not cause cancer. The company ceased selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020, transitioning to a cornstarch alternative. Mesothelioma has been associated with asbestos exposure.
Following the verdict, Trey Branham, one of the attorneys representing Moore’s family, expressed hope that Johnson & Johnson would finally acknowledge accountability for the tragic deaths linked to their products.
Johnson & Johnson is currently facing lawsuits from over 67,000 plaintiffs who claim to have developed cancer after using baby powder and other talc items. While the majority of cases involve allegations of ovarian cancer, a smaller subset pertains to mesothelioma claims related to talc.
The company has attempted to resolve the legal challenges through bankruptcy, a strategy that has been rejected three times by federal courts. Mesothelioma-related lawsuits were not part of the most recent bankruptcy proposal. Although J&J has settled some of these claims previously, a comprehensive nationwide settlement has not been reached, resulting in numerous mesothelioma cases proceeding to trial in state courts in recent months.
Over the past year, Johnson & Johnson has encountered significant verdicts in mesothelioma cases, with Monday’s ruling ranking among the largest. While the company has prevailed in some mesothelioma trials, such as last week’s case in South Carolina where the jury found J&J not liable, it has also succeeded in reducing certain awards on appeal. For instance, in an Oregon case, a state judge granted J&J’s motion to overturn a $260 million verdict and ordered a new trial.