The family of Mae Moore, a California resident who died at age 88 in 2021, sued the company the same year, claiming J&J's talc baby powder products contained asbestos fibers that caused her rare cancer. The jury late on Monday ordered J&J to pay $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, according to court filings.
14 Comments
crumpted@sopuli.xyz · 55 pts · 327d
They already created a separate company to assume the liability related this lawsuit years ago. I believe the bankruptcy court ruled against them on this, but that shows you the length they're willing to go to not pay out.
I would be shocked if this wasn't just kicked around for years, until eventually SCOTUS establishes new legal precedent to further help shield large corporations from this type of liability.
BanMe@lemmy.world · 55 pts · 327d
I had a pleurodesis (that's where your lung collapses several times so they glue it to your ribcage with scar tissue to keep it upright) and they offered me a choice of talc, where they blow in the talc powder to create the scar tissue, or mechanical, where they stick a spiked rod in and abrade you from the inside out.
Despite how unpleasant the latter sounded, my surgeon all but insisted I not go talc, he said I would thank him later.
Oh, god I do.
DasAlbatross@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 327d
Our medical technology these days is miraculous in many ways. Then there are knee replacements and this body horror tale.
BanMe@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 327d
It gets worse but the moral is, don't collapse your lung. I wish someone had told me.
MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 326d
You did this on purpose?
VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 326d
And mostly how not to ! I got a new fear and no way to know how to prevent it !
village604@adultswim.fan · 29 pts · 327d
So what fraction of a percent of the profits they made is the $966m?
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 327d
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/JNJ/financials/
2024 they had $89 billion revenue, so about 1.1% of revenue.
But profits were "only" $16.7 Billion so 5.8% of profits.
But I'm guessing this is deductible, so they'll probably survive.
comador@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 327d
Lets see, between its introduction in 1892 to its discontinuation in 2019 we can safely derive a global sales average of $273 million per year (accounted for inflation).
2019-1892 = 127 years * $273 = $34.67 Billion.
$966m penalty equates to a 3% deficit to its overall worldwide sales over the lifetime of the product. IE: Nothing.
Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 327d
If you kill a board of directors and chief officers is it only one count of murder since a corporation is a person?
errer@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
I think you mean 3%…but still, nothing.
comador@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
I had assumed that people would figure that the 0.03 was part of 1.00 and not 100 but yeah, my bad. changed.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 327d
No see, we created another billionaire and we'll call it a win. That family will never need to work again.
tomi000@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 327d