Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley on Monday secured a $1.5 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson and other defendants in a jury trial in Baltimore, a figure which includes a whopping $1 billion in punitive damages assessed only against Johnson & Johnson.
That win on behalf of client Cherie A. Craft comes on the heels of a $65.5 million verdict the firm secured in Minnesota on Friday on behalf of a 37-year-old mother of three who alleges her exposure to J&J’s baby powder exposed her to asbestos and contributed to her mesothelioma.
Craft alleged that it was exposure to Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder that caused her peritoneal mesothelioma. Craft is the founding executive director of Smart From the Start, a community engagement organization that promotes “the healthy development of children and families.”
The jury found Johnson & Johnson, Pecos River Talc, Johnson & Johnson Holdco and Kenvue each manufactured, sold or supplied a product in a defect condition that was “unreasonably dangerous to the consumer.”
The jury also found that each of those four companies’ defective products were a substantial factor in causing Craft’s peritoneal mesothelioma, that all four were negligent “in the manufacture, sale or supply of Johnson’s baby powder,” and that their negligence was a substantial factor in causing Craft’s mesothelioma.
All four companies were also found by the jury to have committed “fraud or deceit” against Craft regarding the safety of Johnson’s baby powder and that said fraud or deceit was a substantial factor in causing Craft’s mesothelioma.
Keeping with that theme, jurors answered “yes” to questions asking whether all four companies took part in a conspiracy to commit an unlawful act, or to use an unlawful means in selling their products, and that that conspiracy was a substantial factor in causing Craft’s mesothelioma.
For damages, jurors awarded Craft $3.5 million in future medical expenses, $2.3 million in past and future lost earnings, and $54 million in noneconomic damages.
Johnson & Johnson and Pecos River Talc were the only two companies that the jury determined acted with malice against Craft. For that malice, the jury assessed a punitive damages award against Johnson & Johnson of $1 billion and a punitive damages award against Pecos River Talc of $500 million.
Jessica Dean of DOBS, who represents Craft, issued a statement calling Craft’s cancer “preventable.”
“She used Johnson’s Baby Powder every day of her life until she was diagnosed with cancer,” Dean said. “J&J refused to accept any responsibility and fought at every turn. We are grateful for the dedication of the jury and court and that J&J was held accountable.”
In a statement, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, Erik Haas, vowed an immediate appeal of the “egregious and patently unconstitutional verdict that is the direct result of gross errors made by the trial court that allowed plaintiff’s counsel to lard the record with improper and prejudicial statements and assertions.”
“The verdict is squarely at odds — in result and amount — with the vast majority of other talc cases wherein the company has prevailed and expect the appellate court to reverse the verdict,” the statement reads.
Haas’ statement also includes a paragraph that the company has issued in the wake of other, similar verdicts, arguing the jury’s decision was “predicated on ‘junk science’ refuted by decades of studies that demonstrate Johnson’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”
Other DOBS verdicts secured against J&J this year include:
- A $966 million verdict in California for the family of Mae Moore, who died in December 2021 of mesothelioma. Her family alleged it was her exposure to Johnson’s baby powder or Shower to Shower, a body powder product, that caused her to contract mesothelioma.
- A $42 million verdict in Boston for Paul Lovell and his wife Kathryn, who alleged Johnson’s baby powder directly caused him to contract mesothelioma.
- An $8 million verdict in Boston for Janice Paluzzi, who alleged Johnson’s baby powder caused her mesothelioma.
- A $3 million verdict in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, for Jeanine Henderson, who died prior to trial and alleged her exposure to Johnson’s baby powder and other products caused her fatal mesothelioma. In that case, the jury apportioned liability as follows: J&J 45 percent, Pecos River Talc 2 percent, Avon Products 8 percent and Johns-Manville 45 percent.
- A final judgment from a judge in Connecticut Superior Court in October tacking on $10 million in punitive damages to a jury’s $15 million verdict rendered one year earlier in favor of Evan Plotkin. Plotkin also alleged exposure to Johnson’s baby powder caused his mesothelioma.
The defendants are represented by Morton Dubin, Jack Nolan, Matthew Ashby, and Jake Keester of Kirkland & Ellis, Michael A. Brown and Ericka L. Downie of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and Robin Silver and Michael Haslup of Miles & Stockbridge.
Craft is also represented by Kathy Farinas and Venus Burns of DOBS and Daniel Brown and Matthew Kiely of Brown | Kiely.
The case number is 24-X-24-000005.