Johnson and Johnson see new allegations in baby powder case

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Johnson & Johnson face 38,000 lawsuits, accusing its talcum powder products of causing cancer

A plaintiffs lawyer suing Johnson & Johnson over its baby powder wants a bankruptcy judge to force the pharmaceutical giant to produce the requested information, saying it hinders efforts to investigate the case.

“There was what appears to be a concerted effort to impede, limit and delay discovery,” wrote Michael S. Winograd, co-counsel to two official claimant committees, in a December 28 letter. A response from J&J on Dec. 23 saying it would not respond to demands “necessitated an upcoming motion to compel,” wrote Winograd, partner of Brown Rudnick.

J&J consolidated its talc obligations into a separate unit, LTL Management LLC, and filed for bankruptcy on October 14, adding to the complexity of the case and causing controversy as it is a profitable business. He faces 38,000 lawsuits accusing his talcum powder products of causing cancer and has pushed for a trust to pay victims.

Winograd said the original plaintiffs committee emailed information requests to J&J’s attorney on December 16. After “radio silence for four days,” J&J said it would not accept requests for future LTL requests.

Representatives for J&J did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Jan. 11 hearing scheduled to consider LTL’s proposed appointment of Joseph W. Grier III as the legal representative of prospective talcum applicants is expected to be delayed, the letter said.

“For a number of reasons, including circumstances that arose during the discovery over the past week, the current schedule has become untenable,” Winograd wrote. At the very least, he said, consideration of future claims should be postponed until a decision on dismissing the case is made.

The case is LTL Management LLC, 21-30589, US Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)

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