Talcum Powder Cancer Lawsuits Staying In Missouri
A judicial order concerning the fate of a number of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits pending in Missouri ordered them to remain in the state.
Monday, January 30, 2017 - Johnson & Johnson's latest attempt to change the venue of talcum powder lawsuits currently filed in Missouri has been rebuffed by the courts. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the healthcare company's argument that the claims should be moved to another venue, or that bellwethers in other states should be prioritized ahead of Missouri, did not meet the criteria for the court to act on those requests. There are at least six bellwether trials already scheduled to take place before the City of St. Louis Circuit Court in 2017, with the next one scheduled to begin on February 6.
Johnson & Johnson has long been trying to move talcum powder litigation out of Missouri, specifically St. Louis. The district has been described as a judicial hellhole for corporations facing product safety litigation, as many view the area to be too generous to plaintiffs who bring cases against corporations in the area. A number of the talcum powder lawsuits currently pending before the court have come from outside the district and are hoping to get a piece of the favorable rulings that plaintiffs received in 2016.
Last year, three bellwether trials took place before the City of St. Louis Circuit Court, with all three coming down in favor of the plaintiff. The first claim was filed on behalf of a woman who died from ovarian cancer and received a $55 million award. The second and third were brought by women who were still living but had suffered considerably as a result of ovarian cancer. All three of the cases argued that Johnson & Johnson knew that their talcum powder products had been linked to ovarian cancer by more than 20 medical studies and in response did nothing to warn consumers or help them make an informed decision given the information released about the product.
Talcum powder attorneys also recovered internal documents from Johnson & Johnson that detailed how doctors from within the company warned upper management of the medical studies being conducted into their talcum powder products. This evidence has established that Johnson & Johnson sat on information linking their product to ovarian cancer for decades, trying to rely on thinner evidence backing up the safety of their baby powder offerings.
These allegations are shared by more than 2,000 Johnson & Johnson lawsuits currently pending around the country. Most of these are filed before the City of St. Louis Circuit Court, and New Jersey where Johnson & Johnson is headquartered. New Jersey also will be receiving a large influx of talcum powder lawsuits soon as the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated federal claims into an MDL in early October. These claims will be transferred before the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and progres through pretrial proceedings and the bellwether process together.
Johnson & Johnson also sought to delay the beginning of the talcum powder lawsuit trial set to begin on February 6, a request that was also denied. That trial is scheduled to begin as planned, and it will be looking to be the fourth case in which eight-figure damages are awarded to the plaintiff. The trial will take place roughly one year after the court heard the first bellwether talcum powder lawsuit trial in 2016.
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