A group of women who sued Johnson & Johnson, saying they developed cancer after using the company’s talc products, have filed a class action lawsuit claiming J&J engaged in fraudulent practices to avoid paying them damages.
“For decades, J&J, one of the richest corporations in the world, knowingly sold asbestos-laden talc in its Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products that led to tens of thousands of women developing ovarian cancer and thousands developing mesothelioma,” lawyers for the women stated in a complaint filed May 22 in U.S. District Court of New Jersey.
When the women sought legal remedies, J&J “compounded its malfeasance by pursuing a strategy of repeat fraudulent transfers and serial bad faith bankruptcy filings to hinder, delay, and defraud these women and prevent them from ever having their day in court before a jury of their peers, much less recovering from J&J,” the document stated.
The “Texas Two-Step” and More
In 2021, J&J created a subsidiary called LTL Management to assume all its talc liability. LTL then sought bankruptcy protection in the Lone Star State in a move nicknamed the “Texas Two-Step.”
That strategy failed twice. Following the first failure, J&J announced it was lowering its previous $61.5 billion settlement agreement to $29.9 billion. According to the class action complaint, LTL did not receive an equivalent value.
Lawyers for the women who filed the class action suit also say J&J spun off assets from an existing consumer health division into the new entity Kenvue in 2022 in a further attempt to protect corporate assets.
“J&J has recently announced its intent to pursue further corporate transfers as part of an as-yet unfulfilled scheme which may also constitute additional fraudulent transfers,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, the company plans to void the already diminished $29.9 billion funding agreement, replace it with an even lower one, and file for bankruptcy a third time with another “newly contrived subsidiary.”
“The bad faith that the courts found in ruling against J&J in the two previous bankruptcies applies to every action the company has taken during the past three years,” said Andy Birchfield of Beasley Allen, one of the law firms representing the women, in a press release.
“The individuals bringing this class action are shining a bright light on the entire series of dubious, unlawful, and hypocritical ploys J&J has been following, and they’re saying enough is enough.”
Andy Birchfield
The Asbestos-Talc-Cancer Connection
Talcum powder contains talc, often mined near asbestos minerals and cross-contaminated with this carcinogen. Research has shown that women who frequently use talc products are exposed to asbestos fibers.
Inhaling the fibers can result in mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer. When women use talcum powder on their genitals, they are at risk for ovarian cancer.
The latest research published last week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found a positive association between intimate use of talc and ovarian cancer through a study of more than 50,000 women.
In a statement, Michelle Parfitt of Ashcraft & Gerel, another law firm representing the class action plaintiffs, said, “As the scientific record grows even stronger, J&J’s repeated denials of the dangers of genital talc use, attempts to shirk the company’s responsibility to cancer victims and abuse of the bankruptcy system become even more egregious and tragic.”
