Avon Products Inc. was ordered by a California jury to pay $10.3 million in punitive damages to a woman who blamed her cancer on talc in its cosmetics, in the first such case the company has lost in US litigation. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury that punished Avon Friday for hiding the risks that some of its talc-based powders can cause … [Read more...]
J&J, 2-stepping through talc litigation, faces fresh claims it hid workers’ asbestos exposure
Johnson & Johnson’s yearslong talc litigation saga has taken an unexpected turn. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan this week denied J&J’s bid to block a lawsuit [ in the talc litigation ] accusing the company of hiding evidence that its industrial talc operations exposed workers to asbestos, Bloomberg first reported. Decades back, … [Read more...]
Court upholds award to family of worker who died of asbestos exposure
The South Carolina Supreme Court [in August 2021] upheld a $16 million jury award to the family of a maintenance worker at a polyester fiber plant who died following years of asbestos exposure. Hystron Fibers Inc., owned by defendant CNA Holdings, hired Daniel Construction Co. in 1965 to build a plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. When the … [Read more...]
Chemical Firm BASF and Its Law Firm to Pay $72.5M to Close Talcum-Asbestos Claims
BASF SE, the world’s biggest chemical maker, and a law firm agreed to pay a combined $72.5 million to resolve claims they hid evidence that certain talc products contained asbestos in an effort to scuttle thousands of lawsuits. Executives of BASF, along with lawyers from the New York-based Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, agreed to the joint … [Read more...]
Philly School District poised to pay $850K to teacher diagnosed with mesothelioma
Lea DiRusso, the career city teacher diagnosed last year with a deadly asbestos-linked cancer, is in line to be paid $850,000 by the Philadelphia School District. The school board on Thursday night will consider a resolution allowing the district “to execute, deliver, and perform a settlement agreement” with DiRusso and Amr Osman, her husband, … [Read more...]
Statute of Repose Bars Asbestos-related Claim by Former Power Plant Worker
The estate of a career pipefitter who died from mesothelioma recently lost an appeal on claims that asbestos exposure caused his cancer and the exposure, in the course of his employment, violated the state’s safe place statute. [ This was an appeal of the trial court’s ruling that plaintiff’s complaint was barred by the Wisconsin construction … [Read more...]
Jury clears J&J of liability in California talc cancer case
A California jury on [November 14, 2018] cleared Johnson & Johnson of liability in a case involving a woman who alleged that the company’s talc-based products, including its baby powder, contain asbestos and caused her cancer, the company said. The jury in Humboldt County Superior Court in Eureka, California rejected claims by Carla Allen … [Read more...]
Johnson & Johnson Talc Powder Retrial Begins Monday in South Carolina, CVN to Webcast Live
The retrial of a lawsuit claiming asbestos supposedly present in Johnson & Johnson’s cosmetic talc products caused a 30-year-old attorney to develop mesothelioma begins [November 5, 2018] in South Carolina state court, and the full trial will be webcast live and on demand by Courtroom View Network. A hung jury last May caused an initial … [Read more...]
J&J defends itself in trial over baby powder asbestos claims
A trial for a lawsuit alleging that Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder was responsible for the death of a woman due to her exposure to cancer-causing asbestos began in South Carolina on Monday in the latest case against the healthcare conglomerate and a supplier over their talc-based products. The case also names as a defendant a local unit of … [Read more...]
Court: No company liability for asbestos exposure by family of worker
Arizona companies have no duty to protect family members from exposure to toxic materials their employees bring home on their work clothes, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday. In the first ruling of its kind in Arizona, a majority of the justices rejected arguments by of survivors of Ernest Quiroz that Reynolds Metal Co. should be held … [Read more...]