An Oregon jury awarded a talc claimant $260 million in a verdict against Johnson & Johnson on Monday.
The case was brought by a 49-year-old mother of three named Kyung Lee, who claimed J&J’s talc products caused her mesothelioma. The jury awarded Lee $60 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.
“For years, Kyung and her family used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder not having any idea it could lead to a life-ending illness,” Lee’s attorney Ben Adams said in a news release. “Today, Ms. Lee was able to see justice and secure a future for her family after she is gone.”
J&J said in a statement that it plans to “immediately appeal” the decision, adding that it is “irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming talc is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.”
The company is currently attempting to settle tens of thousands of ovarian cancer lawsuits in a $6.5 billion bankruptcy plan. J&J controversially spun its talc liabilities into a separate company in 2021, which has twice unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy. This time, the company is asking claimants to vote in support of the plan in an eight-week voting period that began this week.
The settlement would only resolve ovarian cancer claims, which constitute a vast majority of remaining talc claims. Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide VP of litigation, previously noted that a small amount of mesothelioma claims will be addressed outside of the bankruptcy plan.
A group of five plaintiffs filed a separate lawsuit last month accusing J&J of “pursuing a strategy of repeat fraudulent transfers and serial bad faith bankruptcy filings” in an attempt to “hinder, delay, and defraud” claimants.