Jurors in state court in Oakland, Calif., heard more than two weeks of testimony before the judge told them on Jan. 6 that the case had settled. While the terms weren’t made public, people familiar with the accord said plaintiff Linda O’Hagan and her family agreed to J&J’s offer. The people asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to comment publicly about the accord.
J&J scored a big win last month in a talc case in St. Louis, where it had been hit with a $4.7 billion verdict in 2018 on behalf of more than 20 women blaming their cancers on its baby powder. In the December trial, jurors rejected a woman’s claim her ovarian cancer was tied to the use of J&J’s talc-based powder.
“In litigation of every nature there are one-off situations where settlement is a reasonable alternative,” Kim Montagnino, a J&J spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. “The decision to resolve any particular case in no way changes our overall position that our talc is safe, is asbestos-free and does not cause cancer.”The company, which faces almost 17,000 suits accusing it of hiding that its baby powder was contaminated with asbestos, has been on a roll at trial, racking up eight defense verdicts last year while losing five.
While it’s unusual for J&J to settle a case mid-trial, it has resolved some talc cases just before a trial started or while proceedings were in progress. The company hasn’t set up any organized settlement program, opting instead to contest claims at trial.
O’Hagan was diagnosed with mesothelioma -- a cancer specifically linked to asbestos exposure -- in August 2018 and underwent treatment for the disease, but probably had less than two years to live, her lawyers told jurors in opening arguments.
The 61-year-old is a native of Ireland who moved to the U.S. in 1991. Evidence in the case indicated she’d used baby powder for decades.
Another defendant in the case, a unit of London-based Rio Tinto Minerals, also settled during the trial for an undisclosed sum. O’Hagan alleged the company mined the talc that was used in J&J’s baby powder and knew it was tainted with asbestos.
Also on Jan. 6y, a state judge in California’s Solano County threw out a woman’s claims that contaminated baby powder caused her cancer after finding she didn’t have evidence showing the talc she used was specifically laced with asbestos. “The mere inference that a talc product might contain asbestos does not create a triable issue,” Judge Wendy Getty concluded.
By Jef Feeley
