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Jury hears closing arguments in J&J talc powder trial in St. Louis
Apr 29, 2016 | Reuters
By Jessica Dye
Jurors in Missouri heard closing arguments Friday following a three-week state court trial over claims that Johnson & Johnson's talc-based powders caused a woman to develop ovarian cancer. -
J&J Baby Powder Cancer Suit Goes To Missouri Jury
Apr 29, 2016 | Law 360
By Brandon Lowrey
A Missouri state jury began deliberating Friday afternoon in a woman's lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson alleging she developed ovarian cancer after decades of using talc baby powder on her genitals, saying the company had long known about the link between genital baby powder use and cancer.
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Jury hears closing arguments in J&J talc powder trial in St. Louis
Apr 29, 2016 | Reuters
By Jessica Dye
Jurors in Missouri heard closing arguments Friday following a three-week state court trial over claims that Johnson & Johnson's talc-based powders caused a woman to develop ovarian cancer.
The case brought by Gloria Ristesund, who said she used J&J talc powder for feminine hygiene for decades, is the second to go to trial this year in St. Louis, where most of the more than 1,200 similar cases are pending. Earlier this year, a different jury in the same court awarded $72 million to the family of woman who died of ovarian cancer after years of talc use.
During closing arguments before Judge Rex Burlison on Friday, a lawyer for the plaintiff, R. Allen Smith, told jurors that J&J was on notice for years about concerns within the scientific community that talc could be a carcinogen when applied to women's genital areas. The company put profits over safety by downplaying those hazards in order to safeguard sales of talc products, including its well-known Baby Powder and Shower to Shower powder, he said.
He urged them to send a message to all three defendants - Johnson & Johnson, its Johnson & Johnson Consumer unit and a separate company, talc producer Imerys Talc America - by awarding sizable compensatory and punitive damages to Ristesund, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011.
http://www.reuters.com/article/products-jj-talc-idUSL2N17W2IX
"By not giving an award and punishing these defendants for their conduct, women will continue to be exposed unknowingly to a substance that can cause ovarian cancer, or contribute to it," Smith said.
Johnson & Johnson's lawyer, Christy Jones of Butler Snow O'Mara Stevens & Cannada, said during her closing statement that there was no clear link between Ristesund's cancer and talc. Other factors, such as Ristesund's endometriosis - a condition that has been associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer - were more likely to have played a role, Jones said.
"There's no evidence in this case that suggests in any way that had Ms. Ristesund not used baby powder, she would not have had cancer," Jones told jurors, noting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had said it had not found any conclusive link between talc powder and ovarian cancer.
In February, J&J was socked with a $72 million verdict after jurors in St. Louis found that J&J's talc powder was responsible for the death of Jacqueline Fox, who developed ovarian cancer after decades-long use of the products for feminine hygiene.
That verdict sparked a renewed interest among the plaintiffs' bar in talc litigation. But it represents a relatively small portion of the products-liability cases against J&J, which is facing a much larger number of lawsuits over products such as transvaginal mesh, metal-on-metal hips and antipsychotic medication Risperdal.
Before the Fox verdict, the only other talc case to go to trial was brought by Deane Burg in South Dakota federal court. Jurors in 2013 found that J&J had been negligent but declined to award any damages to Berg, whose cancer was in remission at the time of the trial.
Reuters viewed the proceedings on Courtroom View Network.
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J&J Baby Powder Cancer Suit Goes To Missouri Jury
Apr 29, 2016 | Law 360
By Brandon Lowrey
A Missouri state jury began deliberating Friday afternoon in a woman's lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson alleging she developed ovarian cancer after decades of using talc baby powder on her genitals, saying the company had long known about the link between genital baby powder use and cancer.
During closing arguments Friday, plaintiffs' attorney Allen R. Smith Jr. of the Talc Litigation Group told jurors that Johnson & Johnson had discussed the product's ovarian cancer risks for decades but failed to warn consumers. He showed jurors a 1986 Johnson & Johnson internal document noting "retrospective studies have implicated talc use in the vaginal area with the incidence of ovarian cancer," saying it was one of many documents showing the company internally recognized there was a risk while denying it publicly.
"They can say whatever they want to with their fancy experts when they come up here that testify in litigation all the time," he said. "This is what they said behind closed doors, when they're in the house and they don't think anybody's listening. A whole different song and dance."
Smith declined to suggest an award amount for his client's pain and suffering to jurors. He only suggested that punitive damages ought to change their behavior and "make them pay" for their conduct.
The trial is the second of dozens brought by women whose claims were consolidated in a complaint filed against J&J in the Circuit Court of St. Louis in 2014. In the first case, a jury in February slammed Johnson & Johnson with a $72 million verdict.
In the instant suit, Gloria Ristesund, 62, was diagnosed with endometrioid ovarian cancer, affecting the lining of her ovaries, in 2011. She was 57 at the time.
She alleges that her use of talc on her genitals, in addition to her independently existing endometriosis, raised her ovarian cancer risk by 214 percent. Her suit names as defendants J&J and talc producer Imrys Talc America Inc.
Johnson & Johnson attorney Christy D. Jones of Butler Snow LLP, meanwhile, argued that the evidence shows that talc is safe, and the studies suggesting otherwise are inconclusive or flawed. She told jurors that Ristesund's endometriosis was the likely cause of her cancer.
"The fact is, endometriosis is a recognized, significant risk factor for ovarian cancer," she said. "It's highly unlikely [that] Mrs. Ristesund would have had ovarian cancer if she had not had endometriosis. In fact, there's no proof, none, that she wouldn't have had ovarian cancer had she not used talc. None."
The trial comes after a jury in February awarded $72 million to the estate of Jacqueline Fox, who died of ovarian cancer after using the body powder for decades. It was reportedly the first time the company has been ordered to pay damages over the link between cancer and the talc used in its products.
The verdict included $10 million in compensatory damages and $62 million in punitive damages.http://www.law360.com/trials/articles/790858/j-j-baby-powder-cancer-suit-goes-to-missouri-jury
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