Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $120m damages in New York baby powder case

New York - Donna Olson had blamed her cancer on asbestos exposure from using the company's baby powder.

Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a New York state judge to pay $120 million (Dh441 million) in damages to a Brooklyn woman and her husband, after she blamed her cancer on asbestos exposure from using the company's baby powder.

Justice Gerald Lebovits of the state supreme court in Manhattan reduced the payout from the $325 million (Dh1.2 billion) ( that a jury awarded Donna Olson, 67, and Robert Olson, 65, in May 2019 following a 14-week trial.

While upholding the jury's liability finding, Lebovits wrote on Nov. 11 that the damages were too high, and the Olsons could either accept the lowered award or have a new trial on damages.

The judge approved the lowered payout on Wednesday, court records show. It includes $15 million (Dh55 million) of compensatory damages and $105 million (Dh386 million) of punitive damages, down from an original $25 million (Dh92 million) and $300 million (Dh1.1 billion), respectively.

Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jerome Block, a lawyer for the Olsons, said they were satisfied with the result, and confident it would be upheld if appealed.

He also said Donna Olson's mesothelioma "is at an advanced stage, and we are hoping for the best."

Donna Olson had testified that she used Johnson's Baby Powder or Shower to Shower daily for more than 50 years.

Lebovits wrote that jurors could find that Johnson & Johnson was for many years "knowingly deceitful about" or "wilfully blind to" potential health risks of its talc products, in part to maintain market share and profit.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company is appealing to the US Supreme Court a $2.12 billion (Dh7.8 billion) damages award in Missouri to women who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in its baby powder and other talc products.

Johnson & Johnson has faced intense scrutiny of its baby powder's safety following a 2018 Reuters investigative report that found it knew for decades about asbestos in its talc.

Internal company records, trial testimony and other evidence show that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, J&J's raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.

• USA