A Los Angeles County judge rejected a jury’s punitive damages award against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, in which the jurors found its product caused a woman’s life-ending cancer.
Mae Moore, 88, died in 2021 from mesothelioma. Her family sued the company, claiming its baby powder contains asbestos, which caused her cancer.
The jury awarded $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages in October 2025.
Judge Ruth Kwan disagreed with the punitive damages in a recent opinion granting J&J’s motion and stating that there was insufficient evidence that showed J&J acted with malice or hid information about its products that it had a duty to disclose.
“Upon considering the entire record in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the Court grants JNOV as to punitive damages because plaintiffs did not establish — by clear and convincing evidence — that J&J acted with malice,” Judge Kwan wrote. “Additionally, JNOV is granted as to concealment because there is no substantial evidence of a preexisting relationship giving rise to a duty to disclose, which is an essential element of a concealment cause of action.”
Judge Kwan further wrote that a new trial would have been granted had she not granted the judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the punitive damages issue.
“We respect what the jury did. And while we respect the trial court, we disagree with her ruling, and we do intend to appeal,” Dean Omar Branham Shirley partner Trey Branham told The Texas Lawbook.
Judge Kwan did not address the compensatory damages award in her opinion.
“The trial court appropriately threw out the $950 million punitive damages award secured by the plaintiff lawyers’ misleading presentation, as it was devoid of evidentiary support and patently unconstitutional. After reviewing the full trial record, the trial court correctly concluded that decades of extensive testing showing Johnson & Johnson’s cosmetic talc products did not contain—and the Company had no reason to be believe they contained — any asbestos,” Erik Haas, Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. “As matter of law, therefore, the punitive damages cannot stand, which is the same reasoning and conclusion that applies to any punitive award rendered against the Company. The Company will now pursue an appeal of all remaining claims in this case.”
This is just one of many cases Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley is pursuing against J&J at the moment. The firm has secured multiple million-dollar verdicts against J&J last year and is currently in trial against the company in Washington and Florida.
O’Melveny & Myers partner Sabrina Strong in Los Angeles and Chicago-based John Ewald of Kirkland & Ellis represented Johnson & Johnson. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Danny Kraft and Venus Burns of Dean Omar Branham Shirley also represented Moore.
The case is Mae Moore et al. v. Johnson & Johnson et al., 21STCV05513.