Punitive Damage Award Could Be Up To $180 Million For California Man

Johnson & Johnson's reprehensible corporate conduct is the cornerstone to rewarding plaintiffs

Sunday, July 30, 2023 - All eyes are looking at the most recent talcum powder cancer trial for the punitive damages amount that a California jury will award a man who has successfully sued Johnson & Johnson after alleging that using Johnson's Baby Powder caused his pericardial mesothelioma, a deadly disease. According to the Oxford dictionary, punitive is defined as the amount of money awarded to a plaintiff exceeding simple compensation and awarded to punish the defendant. Punitive damages in Johnson's Baby powder trials have been in the billions of dollars and one Missouri Appeals Court judge called Johnson & Johnson's corporate conduct reprehensible. That opinion was based on an investigative Reuters article that demonstrated that top company executives knew for decades that there was a high probability that asbestos, a known carcinogen, contaminated their talc supply. The primary focus of the article was contained in its title's description: " Facing thousands of lawsuits alleging that its talc caused cancer, J&J insists on the safety and purity of its iconic product. But internal documents examined by Reuters show that the company's powder was sometimes tainted with carcinogenic asbestos and that J&J kept that information from regulators and the public."

Talcum powder lawsuits continue to be filed. Talc is the active ingredient in Johnson's Baby Powder and the company concluded back in the 1970s that when mothers discovered that there could be a talc/asbestos connection, no matter how small, they would never use talcum powder on their babies. Rather than place a warning label on their iconic talcum powder, the company launched a new product called "Shower to Shower" and targeted Black women in the South. The name of the product implied that the product should be used in between showering for hygiene. Punitive damages in the more than 38,000 pending Johnson's Baby Powder ovarian cancer and mesothelioma trials could bankrupt the health and beauty care giant. The company has spun off a company called LTL Management and placed its talcum powder lawsuits into it. A petition for bankruptcy for LTL was first approved but later overturned and a second attempt at bankruptcy is pending. Avoiding punitive damages is the purpose of the company's Texas Two Step bankruptcy maneuver. Plaintiff lawyers are looking for the California jury to award approximately $180 million in punitive damages, ten times the $18.9 million in compensatory damage award. The most noteworthy of about a dozen lottery-like punitive damage awards that have been granted by Johnson's Baby Powder cancer plaintiffs was a bellwether trial where 22 women with ovarian cancer were awarded almost $5 billion dollars. According to NPR, " Jury Awards $4.7 Billion To Women In Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Suit The verdict, reportedly the largest ever in such a case, was awarded to 22 women and their families who claim asbestos in the powder contributed to their ovarian cancer." Another landmark case concluded in February 2020, when Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $750 million in punitive damages by a New Jersey jury to four people who claimed that the company's talcum powder products caused their mesothelioma Bloomberg reported.

Information provided by TalcumPowderCancerLawsuit.com, a website devoted to providing news about talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits, as well as medical research and findings.