Lawyers for a California man who says he developed a rare cancer from exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder on Monday urged a jury to order the company to pay heavy punitive damages, calling its conduct negligent and "despicable," Reuters reported. "A reasonably careful corporation would not sell a product that allowed carcinogens to be applied to babies," Joseph Satterley, a lawyer for Emory Hernandez Valadez, said in a closing argument at the end of a six-week trial in Alameda County Superior Court in California. J&J has consistently denied that its now-discontinued talc baby powder contains asbestos or causes cancer. Satterley asked jurors to award Hernandez punitive damages about nine times greater than so-called compensatory damages, which include $3.8 million for his medical costs as well as damages for pain and suffering. Satterley said the pain and suffering damages should be much larger than the medical costs. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages, and that a higher ratio can be reduced on appeal as excessive. J&J's lawyers told the jury Monday that there was no evidence presented at the trial linking Hernandez's cancer to talc, and that the company had always gone out of its way to test its talc and ensure its safety.
