$100 Million Talc Settlement Leaves Nearly 19,000 Claims Unresolved
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to settle more than a thousand talcum powder lawsuits for $100 million, Bloomberg news reported Monday.
This is the first large settlement the company has negotiated in connection with more than 20,000 talc lawsuits which have been working their way through the courts for four years.
Bloomberg previously estimated it would cost J&J $10 billion to settle all of the lawsuits which claim the company’s famous Baby Powder and other talc products caused lung and ovarian cancers.
The deal comes after a massive loss for J&J in 2018 when a jury in Missouri awarded more than $4 billion to 22 women who contracted ovarian cancer. The trial exposed evidence that the company had known for decades that its talcum powder was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen.
The Missouri trial judge found “substantial evidence” of “particularly reprehensible conduct” by JNJ. The appellate court, which cut the award in half, wrote that the women “showed clear and convincing evidence defendants engaged in conduct that was outrageous because of evil motive or reckless indifference.”
Johnson and Johnson’s image as a company you can trust has suffered from more than 100,000 consumer lawsuits filed in recent years against the company over its Baby Powder, opioid drugs, hip implants, vaginal mesh and various drugs including Risperdal.
Financial writers have been raising questions about the potential impact of such massive litigation on the company’s bottom line.
The settlement of the thousand talc lawsuits came during a pause in trials due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last talc case to go to trial took place in February 2020 in New Jersey where JNJ is headquartered. The jury awarded $750 million in punitive damages to a group of Baby Powder users who claimed it caused their cancers. A judge reduced the punitive damages to $186.5 million under a state law which limited punitive damages to five times the compensatory damages of $37.2 million.
Subsequently, an appeals court in New Jersey in August 2020 reinstated two talcum powder lawsuits in a ruling that was expected to revive about a thousand other lawsuits in the state. The state’s Superior Court ruled that a trial judge erred in blocking an expert witness for the women from testifying.
The next talc trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 13 in Oakland, California.
J&J has denied that its talcum powder was contaminated with asbestos. In May 2020, however, the company announced it was discontinuing sales of the product in North America in favor of Baby Powder made from cornstarch.
