CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Benjamin Braly delivering his closing argument
Bridgeport, CT - A Connecticut jury returned a $15 million verdict Tuesday following the first trial in the state over claims Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder contained asbestos, and the full trial was recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Evan Plotkin sued J&J in 2021 after being diagnosed with mesothelioma at the age of 64. He blamed his illness on decades of inhaling asbestos supposedly present in Johnsons’ Baby Powder, but J&J maintained he developed cancer from exposure to other sources of asbestos.
In addition to awarding $15 million in compensatory damages the jury also returned a “punitive conduct finding” which will require the presiding judge in the case to make a future determination of additional punitive damages.
Plotkin was represented by the same plaintiff firm, Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley, that delivered plaintiff verdicts in three prior J&J talc/mesothelioma trials earlier this year in Illinois, Oregon and South Carolina.
The Oregon and South Carolina trials, along with the recent Connecticut case, are available with a subscription to CVN’s trial video library, which includes hundreds of other civil trials, among them most of the cosmetic talc cases to go to trial nationwide in recent years and many other asbestos cases.
The verdict comes in the context of J&J pursuing a $9 billion bankruptcy-based settlement plan for cases involving claims talc products caused ovarian and other gynecological cancers. Mesothelioma inhalation cases, which represent a much smaller slice over overall talc lawsuits, are not included in that proposed agreement.
Dean Omar partner Trey Branham told CVN after the trial that J&J never made any settlement offer in the case - a strategy he said he hopes this verdict makes them reconsider.
“In 2024 alone, there have been four juries from four very different states, including now Connecticut, that have looked at the facts and come to the same conclusion,” he said. “We are hopeful that the leadership at Johnson & Johnson will consider whether in the face of overwhelming evidence and decisions by juries that their position is the wrong one.”
J&J’s Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, Erik Haas, issued a statement after the trial saying the company would challenge the verdict in a higher court.
“We will immediately appeal the erroneous rulings by the trial judge that prevented us from sharing critical facts with the jury that demonstrate the plaintiff's exceedingly rare form of mesothelioma was not caused by talcum powder,” he said. “Those facts show that the verdict is irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”
Haas went on to reiterate an argument made at trial by J&J’s attorneys that plaintiffs rely on “junk science” in linking cosmetic talc exposure to mesothelioma. They argued that workers in talc miners with dramatically higher talc exposure than the average person still have roughly the same number of mesothelioma cases as the general public.
Dean Omar faces off with J&J at another talc mesothelioma trial beginning this week in Massachusetts. CVN is also webcasting and recording those proceedings.
J&J was represented in the Connecticut trial by Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.
The case is captioned Plotkin v. Johnson & Johnson, case number FBT-CV21-6109520-S.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com