A jury ruled on Tuesday that Johnson & Johnson’s must pay $18.8 million to a California man who claimed he contracted cancer after using the firm’s baby powder. This is a blow for the company as it works to resolve thousands of lawsuits like this one involving its talc-based products in a US bankruptcy court.

Who is Emory Hernandez Valadez?

Emory Hernandez Valadez, who sued J&J in a California state court in Oakland last year, won the jury’s decision. He was seeking monetary damages. Hernandez, 24, claims that heavy exposure to the company’s talc starting in his early years led to the development of mesothelioma, a fatal malignancy, in the tissue surrounding his heart. The six-week trial was the first talc-related case that J&J, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, had to deal with in over two years.

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Hernandez was determined to be entitled to damages from the court to cover his medical costs and agony and suffering, but the jury decided not to punish the firm with punitive damages. Hernandez won’t be able to collect the judgement anytime soon because a bankruptcy court decision blocking the majority of J&J’s talc litigation.

The verdict, according to J&J’s vice president of litigation Erik Haas, is “irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.” The corporation has announced that it will appeal the decision.

J&J’s attorneys claimed that there was no proof that Hernandez had ever been exposed to contaminated talc or that Hernandez’s specific type of mesothelioma was linked to asbestos in their closing remarks to the jury on July 10. In their closing remarks, Hernandez’s attorneys charged J&J with covering up asbestos contamination for many years in a “despicable” manner.

Hernandez testified in June, telling jurors that if he had been informed that J&J’s talc included asbestos, as his complaint claims, he would have avoided it. Anna Camacho, Hernandez’s mother, testified before the jury. She claimed to have used a lot of J&J’s baby powder on her son as a baby and throughout his adolescence. She sobbed as she talked of Hernandez’s condition.

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Numerous lawsuits have claimed that J&J’s baby powder and other talc goods occasionally contained asbestos and contributed to mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. According to J&J, its talc products are risk-free and free of asbestos, which has been associated with mesothelioma.

In Trenton, New Jersey, LTL Management filed for bankruptcy, offering to pay $8.9 billion to resolve more than 38,000 legal claims and halt the filing of additional litigation. After a federal appeals court rejected an earlier offer, it was the company’s second attempt to settle talc claims in bankruptcy.

The majority of litigation has been put on hold during bankruptcy proceedings, but Hernandez’s trial was allowed to go forward since Hernandez is only anticipated to survive a short time, according to U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan, who is in charge of LTL’s Chapter 11.

Hernandez’s case stands out from the great majority of others against J&J since his type of mesothelioma is quite uncommon.

The most recent bankruptcy filing by LTL is being challenged by asbestos victims. They contend that the file was made in bad faith in an effort to shield the business from legal action.

In contrast to trial courts, which they have compared to a “lottery” in which some litigants receive significant damages while others receive nothing, J&J and LTL have contended that bankruptcy distributes settlement compensation to plaintiffs more fairly, effectively, and equitably.

The costs of J&J’s talc-related judgements, settlements, and legal fees have reportedly totaled roughly $4.5 billion, according to bankruptcy court records.