A U.S. bankruptcy judge said yesterday that he may allow some lawsuits that accuse Johnson & Johnson talc products of causing cancer to proceed while the company's subsidiary seeks a national settlement of the claims in bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, N.J., said that he would consider "two very different paths forward" for the bankruptcy at a July 6 hearing. The company wants the bankruptcy court to estimate the number and value of talc claims, while plaintiffs in the talc lawsuits have asked the court to allow some cases to resume outside of the bankruptcy court. J&J, which maintains that its Baby Powder and other talc products are safe, assigned its talc liabilities to a new subsidiary, LTL Management LLC, and placed it in bankruptcy in October, pausing 38,000 lawsuits that had been filed against J&J. The talc claimants have appealed Kaplan's decision to allow the bankruptcy case to block their lawsuits, and the two sides remain far apart in recent mediation. LTL attorney Greg Gordon of Jones Day said the bankruptcy court should estimate the overall value of talc claims to impose "discipline" on settlement talks. David Molton of Brown Rudnick, an attorney for the talc claimants , said that LTL's approach would cause the case to "malinger" and "fester," just like other bankruptcies involving asbestos claims. At least 300 cancer victims with claims against J&J have died since the LTL case was filed, Molton said.
