On August 23, a request was made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to dismiss claims of conspiracy, fraud, misrepresentation and warranty claims relating to its talcum powder, saying that the claims were not specific enough. The motion was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia and stated that the plaintiffs […]
On August 23, a request was made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to dismiss claims of conspiracy, fraud, misrepresentation and warranty claims relating to its talcum powder, saying that the claims were not specific enough. The motion was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia and stated that the plaintiffs in the case have not given enough specific incidents of misconduct to continue with the case. The plaintiff has claimed that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2015 and that it had been caused by exposure to talcum powder products.
Thousands of women have come forward and begun filing lawsuits against companies like J&J alleging that the products lead to the development of ovarian cancer. Plaintiffs have filed on their own behalf or on the behalf of a deceased loved one. These lawsuits claim that not only do talcum powder products lead to ovarian cancer, but that the companies knew of the existing dangers and kept selling them without warning consumers. The result has been many plaintiffs have made claims for fraud, misrepresentation, and conspiracy.
To date, J&J has had to pay two large settlements to plaintiffs involved in talcum powder cases. An Alabama family was awarded the first settlement of $72 million when they lost a family member to ovarian cancer. In the February 2016 case, a St. Louis jury determined that enough evidence exited to show an association between talcum powder use and ovarian cancer. The second settlement was in the amount of $55 million paid to a South Dakota woman who claimed that her 35-year use of talcum powder had led to her ovarian cancer diagnosis. Following these cases, thousands more have been filed and are currently pending in courts across the United States.
