A Mediator Will Now Assess The Value of Present And Future Talcum Powder Cancer Claims
Johnson & Johnson is seeking to shelter a century of baby powder profits from those who allegedly developed cancer from using it
Sunday, July 31, 2022 - A quick answer to whether or not Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder cancer bankruptcy plan will be overturned on appeal appears nowhere insight as long as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan controls the proceedings. The latest delay tactic and decision in favor of Johnson & Johnson permit the company's request to appoint an independent mediator to assess the number and value of current and future Johnson's Baby Powder cancer lawsuits. The judge also refused the talcum powder cancer lawyer requests that a half dozen or so Johnson's Baby Powder ovarian cancer lawsuits be tried immediately as bellwethers to further assess jury reactions to the scientific evidence. Plaintiffs allege, en masse, that using Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene, regularly and repeatedly, after and in between showers, caused particles of talc and asbestos to enter their vagina, travel up through the Fallopian tubes, and become lodged in their ovaries, leading to cancer. Scientists believe talc being an inert mineral stays trapped in the ovaries permanently and could cause oxidative stress and irritation leading to cancer. Judge Kaplan appointed well-known mediator Kenneth Feinberg whose resume includes acting as the mediator to facilitate a 12 billion dollar settlement between Bayer Monsanto and about 125,000 plaintiffs that accuse the company's flagship product, Roundup Herbicide, of causing their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma a life-threatening form of cancer of the lymph nodes. There is no deadline for Feinberg to complete the investigation but the Judge implied that it could be completed before winter when, in his words, "the weather turns cold," according to a report in Reuters.
More than 40,000 talcum powder cancer lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson have been put on hold by the bankruptcy of its LTL management subsidiary which houses the company's talcum powder legal liabilities. Judge Kaplan and the company are on the same page in thinking that the bankruptcy court affords the enormous number of plaintiffs their best chance of receiving a fair monetary settlement. The company is seeking to shelter more than $400 billion in assets in the parent company, much of which was earned from selling asbestos-contaminated talcum powder to mothers to put apply on their infant's diapers. Johnson & Johnson has succeeded in not only delaying the 40.000 multi-million dollar personal injury and wrongful death claims against them but also in deflecting attention from whether or not their iconic baby powder causes cancer to whether or not a large corporation facing multi-billion dollar mass tort liabilities can shelter its profits from financial ruin. At the very least it would appear equitable that mediator Feinberg also put a number on the profits the company earned for more than a century of selling asbestos-contaminated talcum powder by misleading unsuspecting mothers that it was safe and pure. The $2 billion that J & J funded LTL management with is only a small profit of what the company earned from selling the iconic baby care product.
OnderLaw, LLC -