Johnson & Johnson must pay $18.8 million to a California cancer patient who wore a baby powder suit

Johnson & Johnson must pay $18.8 million to a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to baby powder, a setback for the company as it seeks to settle thousands of similar cases over its talc-based products in US bankruptcy court.

The jury ruled in favor of Emory Hernandez Valadez, who filed suit last year in California state court in Oakland against J&J, seeking monetary damages. Hernandez, 24, said he developed mesothelioma, a potentially fatal cancer, in the tissues around his heart as a result of heavy exposure to that company since childhood. The six-week trial was the first on a hill that J&J of New Brunswick, NJ, has encountered in nearly two years.

The jury found that Hernandez was entitled to damages to compensate him for his medical bills and pain and suffering, but refused to award punitive damages against the company. Hernandez won’t be able to collect judgment in the foreseeable future, thanks to a bankruptcy court order freezing most lawsuits over J&J’s talc.

J&J vice president of litigation Eric Haas said in a statement that the company will appeal the ruling, calling it “irreconcilable with decades of independent scientific evaluations that confirm Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”

Hernandez’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reuters watched the trial through the courtroom viewing network.

In closing arguments to the jury on July 10, attorneys for J&J said there was no evidence linking Hernandez’s type of mesothelioma to asbestos or proving that Hernandez was ever exposed to talc. Hernandez’s attorneys during closing arguments accused J&J of a “despicable” decades-long cover-up of asbestos contamination.

Hernandez testified in June, telling jurors he would have avoided J&J’s talc if he had been warned it contained asbestos, his lawsuit alleges. The jury heard from Hernandez’s mother, Ana Camacho, who said she used large amounts of J&J baby powder on her son when he was an infant and during childhood. She cried as she described Hernandez’s illness.

Tens of thousands of plaintiffs have sued, alleging that J&J baby powder and other talcum products sometimes contain asbestos and cause ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. J&J said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos, which has been linked to mesothelioma.

J&J subsidiary LTL Management in April filed for bankruptcy in Trenton, New Jersey, proposing to pay $8.9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits and prevent new cases from being filed. This was the company’s second attempt to resolve its talc claims in bankruptcy, after a previous attempt was denied by a federal appeals court.

Most litigation was halted during the bankruptcy proceedings, but US Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan, who is overseeing LTL Chapter 11, allowed Hernandez’s trial to proceed because he is only expected to live a short time.

Hernandez’s form of mesothelioma is extremely rare, which makes his case different from the vast majority pending against J&J.

Plaintiffs from Asbestos are seeking to have LTL’s latest bankruptcy application dismissed. They argued that the suit was brought in bad faith to isolate the company from litigation.

J&J and LTL have argued that bankruptcy delivers settlement payments to plaintiffs more fairly, efficiently, and equitably than lower courts, which they likened to a “lottery” in which some litigants receive large prizes while others receive nothing.

J&J said in bankruptcy court filings that costs for talc judgments, settlements and legal fees have come to about $4.5 billion.