U.S. Supreme Court Rejects J&J's $2.1bn Appeal

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects J&J's $2.1bn Appeal

Introduction

Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) petition to avoid paying the $2.1 billion awarded to 20 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer caused due to the company's talcum baby powder has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Missouri state court jury in July 2018 concluded that J&J acted carelessly by withholding the information about the talc-based powders causing ovarian cancer among the users.

The lawsuit included claims from 22 women who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the jury awarded a landmark verdict of $4.7 billion in the case. Two of the claims were dismissed by the jury, even the verdict was reduced following the post-trial appeals. However, $500 million in compensatory damages and $1.62 billion in punitive damages were upheld by the Missouri court for the remaining 20 plaintiffs.

As per the evidence presented in the Missouri Court of Appeals, J&J is correctly fined for withholding its product information, as the only motive of the company was to make a profit by misguiding the users.

In November 2020, Missouri Supreme Court refused to further review the case which prompted J&J to file a Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2021.

J&J has announced that it will keep aside $3.9 billion to cover the verdict and other costs associated with talcum powder litigation, as per the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year.

Currently, there are 30,000 individuals with similar allegations that J&J failed to warn the users about its products’ shortcomings.