A Los Angeles jury ordered Johnson & Johnson on Monday to pay $966 million to the family of a California woman who died from a rare and aggressive cancer, after the company was found liable in a lawsuit claiming its baby powder products cause cancer.
The family of Mae Moore, the California woman who died in 2021, claimed that she developed mesothelioma, a rare cancer, after years of using the powder because it was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. The jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, according to court filings.
Erik Haas, vice president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement that the company planned to “immediately” appeal the verdict, which he called “egregious and unconstitutional.”
Johnson & Johnson has denied that its talcum-based baby powder contains asbestos or causes cancer. The company stopped selling it globally in 2023 after it was hit with tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming that asbestos in the talc had caused mesothelioma, ovarian and other cancers.
The ruling comes just months after a federal judge rejected the company’s attempt to settle all current and future lawsuits involving its talc-based products through a $9 billion bankruptcy plan.
The judge overseeing the case, Christopher Lopez, cited flawed procedures and inadequate claimant consent. It was the third time that Johnson & Johnson had tried unsuccessfully to use bankruptcy to settle its flood of talc-related lawsuits.
In 2021, the company created a subsidiary, LTL Management, which filed for bankruptcy, a move that plaintiffs called “the Texas two-step.” Courts have since ruled that the company cannot use the bankruptcy system to shield itself from liability.
With over 90,000 lawsuits pending, Johnson & Johnson has said that it will “return to the tort system to litigate and defeat these meritless talc claims,” and that it has set aside about $7 billion to resolve the bankruptcy. Internal memos have revealed concerns within the company about the possible presence of asbestos in its talc.
Kailyn Rhone is a Times business reporter and the 2025 David Carr fellow.
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