Talcum Powder Trial Ends in $417M Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson

A California jury has levied a record-setting $417 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson over allegations that its talcum powder caused the plaintiff’s ovarian cancer.

Compensatory damages for plaintiff Eva E., who is terminally ill with ovarian cancer, make up $70 million of the award. The remaining $347 million in punitive damages is a penalty assessed by the jury to punish defendant Johnson & Johnson for allegedly failing to properly warn consumers about a possible link betweentalcum powder and ovarian cancer.

The award is the largest one yet issued among the many talcum powder cancer lawsuits now playing out in courts across the country. Awards as high as $110 million have been issued in cases being tried as part of a complex litigation program in a St. Louis court.

Eva’s claim is part of a similar complex litigation program in California state court. She brought this talcum powder cancer lawsuit in July 2016 together with six other plaintiffs, all of whom developed ovarian cancer after years of using Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower.

According to the plaintiffs, Johnson & Johnson has had access since at least the early 1970s to scientific evidence linking use of talcum powder in the genital area to the later development of ovarian cancer. Dozens of subsequent studies were conducted that reached similar conclusions, plaintiffs claim.

Jurors were presented with evidence showing that Johnson & Johnson was made aware of the potential risk several times over the many years that Eva was using its talc products.

Yet despite that evidence, Johnson & Johnson declined to warn consumers about that possible risk, the plaintiffs say. In fact, the plaintiffs accuse Johnson & Johnson and talc supplier Imerys Talc America of conspiring to suppress information about the possible risk, in the interest of protecting their revenues from talc product sales.

The plaintiffs say that with a proper warning, they could have avoided increasing their risk of ovarian cancer by declining to use Johnson & Johnson’s talc products.

Eva’s attorney told Law360 that the verdict was intended to drive Johnson & Johnson to change its conduct. With the company’s current value in the billions of dollars, a penalty has to be extraordinarily large to get its attention.

A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson told Law360 the company will appeal the verdict. The company insists that scientific evidence shows their talc-based products are safe for women to use, and that any evidence to the contrary is insufficient to show there’s any real risk associated with use of talcum powder in the perineal area.

During trial, the company focused on challenging the legitimacy of the plaintiffs’ scientific evidence. The company alleged that the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses were working with studies that showed only a weak correlation between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, and that they had cherry-picked certain evidence while ignoring other studies that contradicted their findings.

Imerys Talc America managed to escape liability by winning a motion for summary judgment weeks before the trial began.

Eva is represented by attorneys Allen Smith of The Smith Law Firm PLLC, Helen Zukin of Kiesel Law LLP, Michelle A. Parfitt of Ashcraft & Gerel LLP, Ted Meadows and David Dearing of Beasley Allen, and Mark P. Robinson Jr., Kevin F. Calcagnie and Scot Wilson of Robinson Calcagnie Inc.

The Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Ovarian Cancer Lawsuit is Case No. BC628228, part of the coordinated proceeding Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Cases, Case No. JCCP4872, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

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