The lawyer who oversaw payments to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has agreed to mediate part of the fight between Johnson & Johnson and thousands of women who claim the company’s baby powder causes ovarian cancer, Bloomberg News reported. Kenneth R. Feinberg would share duties with another mediator as part of an effort to resolve nearly 14,000 lawsuits against J&J and its former supplier, Imerys Talc America. Imerys filed bankruptcy in Delaware in 2019 with plans to force J&J to help pay for a victim’s trust that would settle all current and future lawsuits. J&J claims it isn’t responsible for helping Imerys. During a virtual court hearing Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein said she will likely sign an order setting up the mediation once lawyers submit a final version. The talks are unlikely to resolve all of the baby powder lawsuits that J&J faces because the mediation only covers liabilities faced by Imerys and another talc mining company. J&J is involved because it has previously promised to indemnify Imerys against all talc lawsuits. To try to end all current and future baby powder claims, J&J put a unit into bankruptcy with plans to pay at least $2 billion into a victims trust. J&J faces about 38,000 lawsuits claiming the talc in its baby powder was tainted and causes ovarian cancer and other health problems, mostly in women.
