A California state court jury has awarded $18.8 million to a 24-year-old man alleging that he developed cancer from exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) talc-based baby powder, in the first trial since the company halted their talc-related litigation two years ago with a controversial bankruptcy filing, Courtroom View Network reported. The Alameda County jury agreed that Emory Hernandez Valadez developed mesothelioma due to years of using popular products like Johnson’s Baby Powder that his attorneys argued were laced with asbestos. The six-week trial marked the first time that jurors decided a J&J talc case after J&J spun off their talc-related liability into a new subsidiary, LTL Management, and then had that entity file for bankruptcy in New Jersey where the company is headquartered. The jury also cleared retailer defendants Safeway Inc. and Target Corporation, where Valadez claimed that he purchased much of the baby powder, of all liability while assigning 100 percent liability to the J&J parent company and none to LTL. J&J issued a statement after the trial saying they planned to appeal the verdict.
