Johnson & Johnson has tried to avoid paying verdicts to mesothelioma victims who were exposed to asbestos from the company’s baby powder.
Johnson & Johnson tried three times to reorganize assets through a bankruptcy tactic that would have created a trust fund and diverted all claims to that fund.
Yet, each attempt was blocked, and now Johnson & Johnson is back facing victims in court – and getting hit with multi-million-dollar verdicts from mesothelioma lawsuits.
A jury in Massachusetts ruled in favor of a man with mesothelioma for more than $42 million, which Johnson & Johnson is ordered to pay in the ruling. According to a report from Reuters, Paul L. and his wife Kathryn sued Johnson & Johnson in 2021.
Paul used the company’s baby powder and claimed he was exposed to stray asbestos fibers. The verdict awarded the massive verdict for medical expenses along with pain and suffering.
Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder and Asbestos
Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder is made with talc, which is a natural mineral in the earth’s soil. Talc can absorb moisture and keep skin healthy, which is why cosmetic and health products were made for decades with it.
Asbestos is also a natural mineral, and asbestos and talc often cohabitate. Mining for talc can lead to asbestos contamination.
Asbestos is a sturdy mineral used for decades in construction work and automobile manufacturing. In the 1980s, scientists connected asbestos to a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma. Whenever asbestos broke apart into tiny fibers, people could inhale the fibers by accident and have them get stuck in tissue linings.
Companies such as Johnson & Johnson reportedly knew asbestos could contaminate talc products during the manufacturing process – such as grinding talc into a talcum powder – but continued using talc despite the risks. This is the basis of many people’s lawsuits against the company: that leadership knew of the dangers to consumers and continued using the same ingredients.
Johnson & Johnson’s History With Asbestos Litigation
Johnson & Johnson is no rookie in defending against asbestos legal claims. The company has faced lawsuits for several years from people diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos diseases (lung cancer and ovarian cancer, to name a couple).
However, in 2020, Johnson & Johnson stopped manufacturing and selling the company’s trademark Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder in the United States and Canada. A couple of years later, the company put an end to the product worldwide and replaced it with a safer cornstarch-based baby powder.
In the last few years, the company has aimed to use a Chapter 11 bankruptcy move to avoid facing pending and future lawsuits. By creating a subsidiary “shell company” to hold all legal liabilities and having that subsidiary go bankrupt, Johnson & Johnson would settle pending claims and pay future claims from a trust fund bank account.
Three attempts at this plan have been blocked by bankruptcy judges, who feel Johnson & Johnson is using a loophole to avoid paying victims their deserved compensation.
Johnson & Johnson has lost verdicts of $260 million, $45 million, $15 million and $8 million just in the past two years. There have been a handful of verdicts eclipsing $100 million. Just two months ago, a woman was awarded $3 million from a trial in New Orleans.
There are approximately 63,000 pending lawsuits from people who have cancer and claim the disease is due to Johnson & Johnson’s products.
Have Mesothelioma? Used Baby Powder in the Past?
Anyone diagnosed with mesothelioma has been exposed to asbestos at some point. Asbestos exposure is the only proven cause of this cancer.
If you have mesothelioma and used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder – or had it used on you as a child – then you may have a legal case and can be awarded asbestos exposure compensation. Contact our patient advocates to learn your options and get help finding a compassionate lawyer.
Email Carl Jewett at cjewett@mesotheliomaguide.com for immediate assistance.
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