New Jersey Court Dismisses Talc Suits for Lack of Causation

Shook, Hardy & Bacon attorneys won dismissal with prejudice of two suits against Johnson & Johnson when a New Jersey state court found that plaintiffs’ causation experts failed to support their claim that JOHNSON’S^® Baby Powder caused ovarian cancer.

In its ruling, the court said, “No witness for Plaintiffs ventured to articulate just how it is that talc in the ovaries, or what it is about talc in the ovaries, sets off a chain of events which purportedly causes ovarian cancer . . . Though both Plaintiffs’ experts are eminently qualified, their areas of scientific inquiry, reasoning, and methodology are slanted away from objective science and towards advocacy.”

The court made its ruling after a two-week hearing to determine the sufficiency of the scientific evidence at the heart of the litigation. Law360 covered the ruling in more detail.

Carl v. Johnson & Johnson, No. ATL-L-6546-14; Balderrama v. Johnson & Johnson, No. ALT-L-6540-14 (N.J. Super. Ct., Atlantic Cty. 2016).