ST. LOUIS – A jury has issued Johnson & Johnson to pay $4.69 billion in a talcum powder lawsuit Thursday.
The jury awarded $550 million in compensatory damages to 22 women and their families who alleged that decades of daily use of Johnson & Johnson’s asbestos-laden talcum powder products caused their ovarian cancer. They also ordered the company to pay another $4.14 billion in punitive damages.
The jury heard six weeks of testimony and deliberated eight hours before returning the first phase verdict.
The jury is considering punitive damages against the company for failing to warn about cancer risk, according to a press release.
This is the country’s first talc/asbestos-induced ovarian cancer verdict.
“For over 40 years, Johnson & Johnson has covered up the evidence of asbestos in their products,” said Mr. Lanier. “We hope this verdict will get the attention of the J&J board and that it will lead them to better inform the medical community and the public about the connection between asbestos, talc, and ovarian cancer. The company should pull talc from the market before causing further anguish, harm, and death from a terrible disease. J&J sells the same powders in a marvelously safe corn starch variety. If J&J insists on continuing to sell talc, they should mark it with a serious warning.”
Six of the women in the case have passed away and were represented at the trial by spouses and family members. Many of the other women involved took the stand at trial to talk about their use of the products and how ovarian cancer affected their lives. Those plaintiffs will receive money from the $550 million in compensatory damages.
Punitive damages are additional punishments levied against a defendant to prevent similar actions in the future. The court will decide where that money goes, but they have not yet determined the fate of that $4.14 billion.
Johnson & Johnson released the following statement after the decision:
Johnson & Johnson is deeply disappointed in the verdict, which was the product of a fundamentally unfair process that allowed plaintiffs to present a group of 22 women, most of whom had no connection to Missouri, in a single case all alleging that they developed ovarian cancer. The result of the verdict, which awarded the exact same amounts to all plaintiffs irrespective of their individual facts, and differences in applicable law, reflects that the evidence in the case was simply overwhelmed by the prejudice of this type of proceeding. Johnson & Johnson remains confident that its products do not contain asbestos and do not cause ovarian cancer and intends to pursue all available appellate remedies. Every verdict against Johnson & Johnson in this court that has gone through the appeals process has been reversed and the multiple errors present in this trial were worse than those in the prior trials which have been reversed.
