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Update 8:35pm: Adds J&J comment.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) will have to pay $18.8 million after a jury ruled in favor of man who claimed that the pharmaceutical company’s talc-based baby powder was responsible for his mesothelioma.
The jury awarded plaintiff Anthony Hernandez Valadez $18.8 million in damages in an Oakland, California courtroom on Tuesday.
The case was the first in two years in talc-based litigation against J&J after thousands of other cases were halted as J&J attempted to separate its talk liability in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its LTL Managent unit. The case was allowed to proceed due to Valadez’s ailing health.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said it will appeal the ruling in a statement to Seeking Alpha.
“We thank the jurors for their efforts but intend to pursue an appeal based on erroneous rulings by the trial judge,” Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation, Johnson & Johnson, said in the statement. “Those rulings prevented us from sharing with the jury critical facts that demonstrate the plaintiff’s exceedingly rare form of mesothelioma was not caused by Baby Powder.”
Johnson & Johnson earlier this year asked the court to put the lawsuits on hold after J&J in April offered $8.9 billion to settle the talc claims, up from its initial offer of $2 billion.
“The verdict award will not be paid while the Bankruptcy proceeding continues, and this decision has absolutely no impact on that process, which has the support of lawyers representing the majority of claimants,” Hass continued. “We remain focused on all claimants having the opportunity to vote and decide for themselves on our plan to compensate them in a timely and efficient manner.”
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary LTL Management, which was created to file for bankruptcy as a way to handle talc litigation, refiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April after its first attempt was thwarted.
