A California man claimed he got cancer from using Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) baby powder. Now, it is a win for him since the US jury agreed with his claim, ordering the company to pay him $18.8 million.
This ruling, which was announced on Tuesday, July 18, comes as the corporation attempts to resolve thousands of similar complaints over its talc-based products in US bankruptcy court.
Baby Powder Lawsuit
Emory Hernandez Valadez, who sued J&J in a California state court last year, was awarded damages by the jury, as reported by ABC News.
Hernandez, 24, claims that his life-threatening mesothelioma in the heart's pericardial tissue was caused by his prolonged exposure to the company's talc beginning in his youth.
J&J's talc trial lasted six weeks. It was the first legal proceeding the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based corporation had been involved in for over two years.
Hernandez was awarded compensatory damages to cover his medical expenses and pain and suffering, but the jury did not levy punitive damages on the firm.
But because of a bankruptcy court decision that put a hold on most lawsuits over J&J's talc, Hernandez will not be able to collect the award any time soon.
For J&J, the judgment is "irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer," according to a statement released by J&J's vice president of litigation, Erik Haas.
On July 10, during their closing statements, J&J's attorneys told the jury that there was no evidence connecting Hernandez's form of mesothelioma to asbestos or showing that he was ever exposed to contaminated talc.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Hernandez claimed that J&J had covered up asbestos contamination for decades in a "despicable" manner.
In his June testimony, Hernandez told the jury that he would have avoided J&J's talc if he had been advised that it included asbestos.
Anna Camacho, Hernandez's mother, testified that she applied a lot of J&J's baby powder to her son from the time he was an infant and throughout his adolescence.
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Numerous lawsuits have been filed by individuals who claim that J&J's baby powder and other talc products sometimes contain asbestos and contribute to the development of ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. On the other hand, J&J claims that their talc products do not contain the cancer-causing mineral asbestos.
In April, a J&J subsidiary, LTL Management, filed for bankruptcy in Trenton, New Jersey. It offered to pay $8.9 billion to resolve more than 38,000 complaints and avoid further litigation.
After a previous effort at settling talc claims in bankruptcy was denied by a federal appeals court, the business made a second one.
US Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan, who is supervising LTL's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, normally would have paused all litigation until the outcome of the case, but in light of Hernandez's terminal prognosis, he allowed the trial to continue.
