Los Angeles jury sides with Johnson & Johnson in bellwether talc trial

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A Los Angeles County jury has given pharmaceutical and personal care product maker Johnson & Johnson a big win amid the continuing legal campaign to secure a potentially massive payout over claims from women who claim they contracted ovarian cancer from trace amounts of asbestos allegedly contained in talc used at the time in baby powder.

On June 5, the jury sided with J&J in turning aside the lawsuit lodged by attorneys from the prominent plaintiffs' firms of Beasley Allen, Wisner Baum and Robinson Calcagnie, on behalf of the families of three women.

The women, Bonnie Tienken, Geneva Williams and Mary Owens, all died of ovarian cancer. The families' lawsuits asserted J&J should pay because the women's cancer was allegedly caused by exposure to asbestos, which was allegedly contained in talc used in J&J's baby powder products the women had used.

Ten of the 12 jurors on the case, however, agreed with J&J's contention that the plaintiffs couldn't show how the talc powder actually caused the women to contract ovarian cancer.

Following the jury verdict, Johnson & Johnson said the decision shows the jury "saw through the farce" behind the claims advanced by trial lawyers in these cases, and tens of thousands of other similar cases still pending in court.

"This lawsuit has never been about the plaintiffs," said Erik Haas, J&J's Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, in a statement. "It is about the plaintiffs’ bar weaponizing junk science to chase windfalls and enrich themselves at the expense of truth, justice, and their own clients."

The firms of Wisner Baum and Beasley Allen did not respond to requests from The Record for comment on the verdict, including questions about whether the plaintiffs will seek to overturn the verdict or seek a new trial.

However, in other published reports, attorneys from those firms who represented the plaintiffs at trial said they were "certainly disappointed, and disappointed for the families."

They did not yet indicate if they will appeal in those reports.

The cases brought by the three families are among tens of thousands of similar lawsuits lodged in California and other U.S. courts against J&J.

All the cases rest on similar claims: That plaintiffs or their family members contracted cancer after allegedly being exposed to trace amounts of asbestos allegedly contained within talc used in baby powder manufactured and sold for decades by J&J.

More than 50,000 of those cases have been centralized in federal court in New Jersey, with about 800 others consolidated in L.A. County Superior Court.

Those lawsuits largely followed the 2019 publication of a study by Dr. Jacqueline Moline, of Northwell Health, which claimed exposure to talcum powder alone could cause mesothelioma.

However, J&J has sued Moline, claiming she knowingly included falsehoods in her study, including allegedly knowing that more than half of the subjects of her study had been exposed to asbestos through other products or had claimed such exposure in legal actions filed against other manufacturers alleging their products had caused them to contract mesothelioma.

Similarly, J&J has argued the alleged link between talc in baby powder and other forms of cancer amounts to "junk science."

The cases, however, have proceeded to trial in courts in various court systems in recent years.

To help determine the strength of the cases, judges and lawyers for both sides identified certain cases to take to trial, as so-called "bellwether" cases.

The June 5 verdict marked the completion of the second such bellwether trial in L.A. court.

A jury in the first bellwether trial in December 2025 ordered J&J to pay a combined $40 million to two women who also claimed J&J talc products had allegedly caused them to contract ovarian cancer.

However, J&J said in December the first bellwether trial outcome was an outlier, as the company noted at the time that jurors had already sided with J&J in 16 of 17 trials in cases over the alleged talc-cancer connection.

Before the second L.A. bellwether, J&J had also notched a victory in a trial over similar claims in Oklahoma.

“As with the defense verdict in Oklahoma last week, yet another jury found what the Company has always maintained: that Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer," J&J's Haas said in the company's statement concerning the most recent L.A. verdict.

"... Another jury saw through the farce."

Plaintiffs in the second L.A. bellwether trial were represented by attorneys Ari S. Friedman, of Wisner Baum; Leigh O'Dell, of Beasley Allen; and Daniel S. Robinson, of Robinson Calcagnie.

Johnson & Johnson was represented by attorneys Julia E. Romano, Christopher R. Cowan and Shaila Diwan, of the firm of Kirkland & Ellis, of Los Angeles, New York and Austin, Texas.