Judge Rejects Johnson & Johnson’s Effort to Limit Talc-Related Liabilities

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For the second time this year, a court has ruled against Johnson & Johnson’s effort to use a bankruptcy case to limit its exposure to tens of thousands of lawsuits that claim its talcum powder products caused cancer. The plaintiffs claim that the company knew for decades about the risks linked to its talc products, including its signature baby powder. The company created a subsidiary, LTL Management, in 2021 as a maneuver to shield itself from the talc litigation. It proposed that the subsidiary, which had filed for bankruptcy, pay $8.9 billion to resolve all the claims against it. But on Friday, Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, said LTL’s bankruptcy case must be dismissed because the lawsuits did not put the company in “imminent or immediate financial distress.” Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia dismissed the first bankruptcy effort for the same reason.