Class Action Over Baby Powder, Shower-to-Shower Talcum Powder Cancer Risk Authorized in Canada

Johnson & Johnson faces a class action lawsuit in Canada, over claims that its Shower to Shower and Baby Powder caused ovarian cancer among women in that country. 

Earlier this month, the Quebec Superior Court approved class action status for a case filed by by Rosemary Kramar, who indicates that she developed ovarian cancer in 2012, following 50 years of using talcum powder products. It is unclear as to whether Johnson & Johnson will appeal the decision to grant Kramar’s lawsuit class action status in Canada.

Johnson & Johnson faces several thousand similar Baby Powder lawsuits and Shower-to-Shower lawsuits in U.S. state and federal courts, each raising allegations that talc contained in the products migrated through the vagina following regular and long-term use, causing the development of ovarian cancer.

Given similar questions of fact and law presented in other cases filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, centralized pretrial proceedings have been established in the District of New Jersey, before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson.

Known as a multidistrict litigation (MDL), the consolidated pretrial proceedings in the United States are managed in a manner similar to a class action over Baby Powder, Shower-to-Shower and other Johnson & Johnson talcum powder products, but each claim remains an individual case. The litigation is centralized to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings from different Courts and serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and judicial system.

As part of the coordinated MDL proceedings, it is expected that a small group of “bellwether” cases will be set for early trial dates in the U.S. federal court system to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout thousands of cases.

Over the past few years, a number of state court talcum powder trials over ovarian cancer cases have gone before juries, with many resulting in multi-million dollar damage awards over Johnson & Johnson’s failure to adequately warn about the risks associated with their products.

Although Johnson & Johnson has maintained that it does not intend to offer talcum powder settlements for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the size of several early jury verdict suggests that the company could face staggering liability if it does not reach a resolution for the litigation.