New Evidence Seen as Key in LA Jury's $417M Talc Verdict
California jurors who awarded $417 million on Monday in a talcum powder trial might have been influenced by three new pieces of evidence, including an emailed photo that arrived just as the trial started, according to plaintiffs' attorneys in the case.
August 21, 2017 at 05:21 PM
15 minute read
California jurors who awarded $417 million on Monday in a talcum powder trial may well have been influenced by three new pieces of evidence, including an emailed photo that arrived just as the trial started, according to plaintiffs' attorneys in the case.
The jury, in Los Angeles Superior Court, handed up a verdict awarding Eva Echeverria $70 million in noneconomic damages and $347 million in punitive damages after finding that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn that its baby powder could cause her to get ovarian cancer. ALM monitored the jury verdict through Courtroom View Network, which covered the trial. Echeverria was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.
Thousands of women have brought lawsuits making similar claims, most of which are in California, Missouri and New Jersey. Plaintiffs' attorney Allen Smith, of The Smith Law Firm in Ridgeland, Mississippi, has handled all six of the previous trials, five of which were in Missouri. A seventh never went to a jury after the judge granted a mistrial. Juries hearing cases linking talcum powder to cancer have previously announced four plaintiffs' verdicts, coming to a total of $300 million in awards, the highest of which was $110 million.
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