The legal action led to payouts of US$25 million to eight of the plaintiffs. Photo/123RF.
A St. Louis jury has awarded nearly US$4.7 billion (NZ$6.9 billion) in damages to 22 women and their families after they claimed asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer. Jurors on Thursday awarded the women US$4.14 billion in punitive damages and US$550 million in compensatory
damages after a six-week trial in St.
The women also sued a unit of Imerys, which supplied the talc to J&J. Imerys Talc America settled before trial on confidential terms. The company agreed to pay at least US$5 million to settle the claims, according to two persons familiar with the matter.
J&J knew its talc products were contaminated with asbestos and kept this information from reaching the public, Mark Lanier, the plaintiffs' lawyer told jurors in closing arguments Wednesday. J&J sought to protect the image of Baby Powder as "their sacred cow,'' he said.
J&J "rigged'' tests to avoid showing the presence of asbestos, Lanier said. If a test showed the presence of asbestos J&J sent it to a lab the company knew would produce different results, he told the jurors.
J&J denied any contamination with asbestos or any rigged testing. The accusations of suppressing or ignoring tests didn't make sense, said Peter Bicks, the company's trial counsel.
