J&J
loses bid to overturn baby powder verdict, but damages
cut to $2.12 billion
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[June 24, 2020]
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A Missouri appeals court on
Tuesday rejected Johnson & Johnson's bid to throw out a jury verdict in
favor of women who blamed their ovarian cancer on its baby powder and
other talc products, but reduced damages by more than half, to $2.12
billion.
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The Missouri Court of Appeals lowered the original $4.69 billion
verdict from July 2018 after dismissing claims by some of the 22
women and their families who had sued.
But it said the plaintiffs had proven that J&J and an affiliate
concealed for decades that the talc products contained asbestos,
"worked tirelessly" to ensure that testing protocols would not
detect asbestos in all talc samples and published articles
downplaying the safety hazards of talc.
"Plaintiffs proved with convincing clarity that defendants engaged
in outrageous conduct because of an evil motive or reckless
indifference," the court said. "There was significant
reprehensibility in defendants' conduct."
J&J said it will appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.
"We continue to believe this was a fundamentally flawed trial,
grounded in a faulty presentation of the facts," spokeswoman Kim
Montagnino said. "We deeply sympathize with anyone suffering from
cancer, which is why the facts are so important. We remain confident
that our talc is safe, asbestos free, and does not cause cancer."
Tuesday's decision followed J&J's May 19 announcement that it would
stop selling its Baby Powder talc in the United States and Canada.
The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company faces more than 19,000
lawsuits claiming that its talc products cause cancer because of
contamination from asbestos, a known carcinogen.
J&J's payout in Tuesday's decision includes $500 million of
compensatory damages and $1.62 billion of punitive damages, down
from a respective $550 million and $4.14 billion in the original
verdict from a Missouri circuit court.
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Mark Lanier, the lead lawyer for plaintiffs, called the decision "a
clarion call for J&J to try and find a good way to resolve the cases
for the people who have been hurt."
J&J 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. (https://www.reuters.com/
investigates/special-report/johnsonandjohnson-cancer/)
J&J has been the target of a federal criminal probe on how
forthright it has been about the safety of its talc products, as
well as an investigation by 41 U.S. states of its baby powder sales.
The company has also faced an investigation by a congressional
subcommittee on the health risks of asbestos in consumer products
containing talc.
J&J on Tuesday declined further comment on these matters.
Johnson & Johnson's shares were down 39 cents at $142.83 in late
trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by
Lisa Girion in Los Angeles and Carl O'Donnell in New York; Editing
by Franklin Paul, Bill Berkrot and Dan Grebler)
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