Judge rejects J&J bid to settle talc cases

NEW YORK: A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston on Monday rejected Johnson & Johnson’s request to approve a $9 billion settlement with tens of thousands of people who are suing the company over claims that its talcum powder products caused cancer.

- DAVID SEGAL

The proposal would have resolved nearly all current and future claims that the company’s talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. Like the previous two efforts — in 2021 and 2023 — the deal tried to use an unfair advantage of the bankruptcy system to settle the claims. Johnson & Johnson claims that its products did not contain asbestos and that there was no proven link between its products and the cancer, the judge, Christopher Lopez, wrote in his ruling. Johnson & Johnson has long denied those claims but has in recent years stopped selling talc-based baby powder worldwide.

More than 50,000 claims against Johnson & Johnson and other parties are pending, far too many for the courts to process individually.

The settlement attempt by the company and lawyers for the plaintiffs who brought the claims was opposed by a Department of Justice bankruptcy trustee as well as other plaintiffs’ lawyers, the judge said.