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Cosmetic Talc Litigation Media Coverage December 05, 2016
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Cancer victim's family sues Johnson & Johnson, Imerys over talcum powder
Dec 2, 2016 | The Exponent Telegram
By Linda Harris
The family of a West Virginia woman blames the ovarian cancer that took her life nine months ago on her long-time use of talcum powder. -
J&J ordered to pay record $1 billion for faulty hip implants
Dec 2, 2016 | The Gazette
By Jef Feeley and Tom Korosec
The verdict continues a losing stretch for J&J before U.S. juries. Six of the seven largest product-defect verdicts in the U.S. this year have been against J&J units, including three in lawsuits claiming its talc products cause ovarian cancer. -
Jurors award more than $1B in hip implant case
Dec 2, 2016 | ABA Journal
By Debra Cassens Weiss
... Among product liability verdicts, six of the seven largest awards this year have been against J&J units, including three verdicts in suits claiming talcum produces cause ovarian cancer. -
Johnson & Johnson To Pay Over $1 Billion In Artificial Hip Lawsuit
Dec 4, 2016 | Immortal News
By Zye Angiwan
...In recent months, the company also came under fire for its talcum powder, and was required to pay out millions in lawsuits – three out of six major cases J&J was involved in this year.
Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel
US Coverage
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Cancer victim's family sues Johnson & Johnson, Imerys over talcum powder
Dec 2, 2016 | The Exponent Telegram
By Linda Harris
The family of a West Virginia woman blames the ovarian cancer that took her life nine months ago on her long-time use of talcum powder.
Ann Christine Underwood died in March after a two-year battle with cancer. Her daughter, Amy Darnold of Cairo, WV, has filed suit in federal court against Johnson & Johnson, J&J Consumer Companies and Imerys Talc, claiming they failed to warn women of the "long-established risks" of using baby powder.
J&J developed Johnson's Baby Powder in 1893 for daily use to eliminate friction and absorb unwanted excess moisture on the skin for babies and women, the complaint states. Imerys, formerly Luzenac America, is the California-based company that mines the talc used in the powder.
Darnold said her mother had used J&J's baby powder since 1965, believing it to be safe. Underwood was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2014 and was 64 when she died earlier this year.
The suit alleges the defendants failed to warn users of the risks of using talc, defective design and negligence. Darnold also claims gross negligence, saying the defendants acted with wanton disregard in allowing consumers to use the product "knowing that its use will lead to serious and life-threatening problems, like ovarian cancer."
Darnold said her mother's use of talcum powder "significantly increased her risk of ovarian cancer" and claims J&J had represented its baby powder had been tested and found to be safe despite 49 years of independent scientific studies suggesting otherwise. She also accuses J&J of putting corporate profits over the health and well-being of its customers, breech of warranty, breech of implied warranty, conspiracy, a violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit & Protection Act and wrongful death.
"Defendants knew, and had reason to know, that the product had been insufficiently tested or had not been tested at all, and that they lacked adequate and accurate warnings, and that it created a high risk, and/or higher-than-acceptable risk," the suit alleged, adding the defendants had "failed to disclose facts indicating the product was inherently dangerous and carcinogenic ... ."
Darnold claims those at the corporate level who were in a position to know the link between the use of talc and the incidence of ovarian cancer stayed silent.
The family is seeking unspecified damages. They're represented by John D. Hurst of Morgantown, and Goldberg, Persky & White PC's Holly L. Deihl of Pittsburgh.
http://www.theet.com/statejournal/law/cancer-victim-s-family-sues-johnson-johnson-imerys-over-talcum/article_d06edcf4-face-546c-af9d-76405430cc11.html
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J&J ordered to pay record $1 billion for faulty hip implants
Dec 2, 2016 | The Gazette
By Jef Feeley and Tom Korosec
A Texas jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay more than $1 billion to patients who claimed the company hid flaws in its Pinnacle artificial hips that had to be surgically removed, in J&J's second loss linked to the implants.
Officials of J&J's DePuy unit, which makes the Pinnacle hips, knew the devices were defective but failed to properly warn doctors and patients about the risk they would fail, the federal jury in Dallas concluded Thursday. The verdict includes more than $30 million in actual damages for the six plaintiffs and more than $1 billion in punitive damages, according to court filings.
J&J still faces almost 9,000 lawsuits accusing the company of mishandling the metal-on-metal hips. J&J stopped selling the devices in 2013 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration toughened artificial-hip regulations.
At $1.04 billion in damages, it's the third-largest overall jury award of 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The largest, for $3 billion, came in June in a breach of contract case brought by Hewlett-Packard Co. against Oracle Corp. The punitive award against J&J was the largest against a company this year, according to Bloomberg data. Such punishment damages are intended to dissuade defendants from continuing sanctioned practices.
"The jury is telling J&J that they better settle these cases soon," said Mark Lanier, who represented the group of six hip patients who sued J&J and DePuy. "All they are doing by trying more of these cases is driving up their costs and driving the company's reputation into the mud."
J&J's DePuy unit acted appropriately in designing and testing the product, spokeswoman Mindy Tinsley said in a statement. The companies have strong grounds for appeal and remain committed to the long-term defense of the lawsuit allegations, according to the statement.
Lawyers for J&J said U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade's rulings barred J&J from providing "a fair presentation to the jury."
"Now the appellate court will need to review errors" made by the judge, attorney John Beisner said in an e-mailed statement. The company will ask Kinkeade not to schedule any more trials until the appellate review is completed, he said.
The verdict continues a losing stretch for J&J before U.S. juries. Six of the seven largest product-defect verdicts in the U.S. this year have been against J&J units, including three in lawsuits claiming its talc products cause ovarian cancer.
J&J won the first Pinnacle hip case to go to trial in October 2014 after a jury rejected a Montana woman's claims that the devices were defective and gave her metal poisoning. In March, a Dallas jury ordered J&J to pay $502 million to a group of five patients who accused the company of hiding defects in the hips. A judge cut that verdict in July to about $150 million.
The Pinnacle devices weren't covered by New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J's $2.5 billion settlement covering its ASR line of artificial hips. In 2010 J&J recalled 93,000 of those implants worldwide, saying 12 percent failed within five years.
Since the six hip recipients who sued J&J were all California residents, that state's law governs the handling of punitive damages awarded in the case. California has no cap on punishment awards, so it may be difficult for the company to argue that this part of the verdict should be reduced under state law.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said such bad-conduct awards must be proportional to compensatory damage verdicts that underlie them and has limited punitive verdicts to 10 times a plaintiff's actual damages.
http://gazette.com/jj-ordered-to-pay-record-1-billion-for-faulty-hip-implants/article/1591465
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Jurors award more than $1B in hip implant case
Dec 2, 2016 | ABA Journal
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Federal jurors in Dallas on Thursday awarded $1.041 billion to six California plaintiffs who sued Johnson & Johnson for a hip implant device with alleged design defects.
The awarded included more than $1 billion in punitive damages, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), Reuters and Bloomberg. Jurors found that Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedic division misled doctors and patients about the safety of its Pinnacle hip implant, and the device can deteriorate bone and tissue.
The verdict is the third largest jury award this year, Bloomberg reports. Among product liability verdicts, six of the seven largest awards this year have been against J&J units, including three verdicts in suits claiming talcum produces cause ovarian cancer.
More than 8,500 plaintiffs have sued Johnson & Johnson in the Pinnacle implant cases. The multidistrict litigation has been consolidated in federal court in Dallas.
The trial was the third test case in the consolidated suits. Jurors ruled for Johnson & Johnson and DePuy in the first test case, but awarded $500 million this March to five plaintiffs in the second test case. U.S. District Judge Edward Kinkeade reduced that verdict to $151 million because of a Texas state law that limits punitive awards.
The $1 billion award is not subject to a state punitive damages cap because it was tried under California law, a member of the plaintiffs’ executive committee told the National Law Journal. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier told Reuters that Johnson & Johnson rejected a $1.8 million settlement offer from the plaintiffs before trial.
Lanier also mentioned settlement in an interview with Bloomberg. “The jury is telling J&J that they better settle these cases soon,” Lanier said. “All they are doing by trying more of these cases is driving up their costs and driving the company’s reputation into the mud.”
Johnson & Johnson contends the trial judge made incorrect rulings that unfairly hampered the company in presenting its case. “Now the appellate court will need to review errors repeated in two trials,” said Johnson & Johnson lawyer John Beisner, “and we will continue to urge that no further trials be conducted until we receive appellate court guidance.”
Johnson & Johnson maintains DePuy acted appropriately in testing the hip implant, and it has a strong track record of reducing pain and restoring mobility for patients.
Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.5 billion in 2013 to settle litigation over its ASR hip devices that were recalled in 2010.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/jurors_award_more_than_1b_in_hip_implant_case
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Johnson & Johnson To Pay Over $1 Billion In Artificial Hip Lawsuit
Dec 4, 2016 | Immortal News
By Zye Angiwan
Johnson & Johnson is not having a good year. A Texas jury has ordered the corporation to pay over $1 billion to patients who alleged that J&J did not fully disclose information on its Pinnacle artificial hips. This led to the device having to be surgically removed.
The federal jury ruled that officials at the company’s DePuy unit, which makes the hip implants, knew that the devices were defective, but withheld this from doctors and patients. The verdict includes more than $30 million in damages for six plaintiffs, plus $1 billion in punitive damages, Bloomberg reports.
J&J already has around 9,000 lawsuits pending on mishandling these artificial hips. The company pulled the devices from the market in 2013 after the US Food and Drug Administration tightened restrictions on hip replacements.
Mark Lanier, attorney for the plaintiffs, said,
"The jury is telling J&J that they better settle these cases soon. All they are doing by trying more of these cases is driving up their costs and driving the company’s reputation into the mud. "
Mindy Tinsley, a spokesperson for J&J, said that the DePuy unit’s design and testing were proper, and that the companies involved have a strong basis for appeal, and will continue defending the allegations against them.Company lawyers said that U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade’s rulings prevented J&J from giving the jury a “fair presentation.”
In recent months, the company also came under fire for its talcum powder, and was required to pay out millions in lawsuits – three out of six major cases J&J was involved in this year.
In 2014, J&J won the first case brought against them regarding Pinnacle, when a woman from Montana claimed that the metal hip gave her metal poisoning. In March of this year, however, a jury – also in Texas – awarded $502 million to five patients who claimed that the company had hidden defects in their hip devices. A judge brought the amount down to $150 million.
http://www.immortal.org/30144/johnson-johnson-pay-1-billion-artificial-hip-lawsuit/
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