U.S. Supreme Court Rejects J & J Appeal of $2 Billion Talc Verdict

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request June 1 from Johnson & Johnson to consider overturning a $2.1 billion award to 22 women who blamed the company’s asbestos-contaminated talcum powder products for causing ovarian cancer. With the Supreme Court declining to consider it, a Missouri state court ruling from 2018 that originally awarded $4.69 billion remains in place. A Missouri court of appeals reduced the award in 2020 to $2.1 billion, but also rejected a J&J effort to dismiss the jury verdict. The appeal did not involve the question of whether the products caused cancer. Johnson & Johnson wanted the Supreme Court to review its argument that the lower courts unfairly combined the 22 cases, which were from several different states with widely different cancer severities and a varied extent of product usage. “The matters that were before the court are related to legal procedure, and not safety,” J&J said in a prepared statement. The court’s action, the statement said, “leaves unresolved significant legal questions that state and federal courts will continue to face on legal issues related to due process rights and personal jurisdiction.” Attorneys for J&J argued that some of the women had family or genetic dispositions for cancer, while others did not. Attorneys for the women maintained that consolidating plaintiffs in product liability cases is common to help preserve court resources. In November, the Missouri Supreme Court ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news