Apr. 18, 2023 9:44 PM ETJohnson & Johnson (JNJ)By: Joshua Fineman, SA News Editor15 Comments
The judge overseeing Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) attempt to have thousands of talc-related lawsuits put on hold said he will rule on the matter on Thursday.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan is expected to rule on Thursday if he will stop ten of thousands of lawsuits from resuming in courts over claims that J&J's (JNJ) baby powder allegedly caused cancer. Kaplan made the comments on Tuesday evening in a New Jersey court at the end of a day-long hearing.
LTL Management LLC, a unit JNJ (JNJ) established in 2021 to hold all of its talc liabilities, refiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month after its first attempt failed following an appeals court ruling early this year.
J&J (JNJ) is asking the court to put the lawsuits on hold after the pharmaceutical giant earlier this month offered $8.9 billion to settle the talc claims, a significant increase from the $2B the company agreed to pay in its first attempt.
The group of lawyers representing the claimants in the talc litigation last week argued in a court filing that J&J's latest bankruptcy attempt to settle the lawsuits should be dismissed. The group alleged that JNJ's move to seek bankruptcy protection for LTL was made in bad faith and called on the Judge Kaplan to toss the case.
J&J (JNJ) maintained that more than 60,000 talc claimants support its bankruptcy plan for LTL Management despite "opposition from a small number of plaintiff law firms."
J&J (JNJ) on Tuesday reported Q1 results that beat estimates and the company raised its FY23 outlook.
