Portland jury awards woman $260K in Johnson & Johnson lawsuit
Kyung Lee was diagnosed with incurable mesothelioma last year. A Portland jury held Johnson & Johnson responsible due to asbestos found in its products.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A jury in Portland has ruled in favor of a Beaverton woman and awarded her $260 million in a lawsuit she filed against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that the company caused her deadly cancer through its products, specifically its talc-based Baby Powder, which the company pulled from shelves in recent years after reports found it could contain asbestos.
Kyung Lee, 49, was diagnosed last year with incurable mesothelioma, a type of cancer that forms in the lining of the lungs or other internal organs and is most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos. She used Johnson & Johnson cosmetic products throughout her life, according to a news release from her attorneys.
“For years, Kyung and her family used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, not having any idea it could lead to a life-ending illness,” Lee’s attorney, Ben Adams of Dean Omar Branham Shirley, said in a statement. “Today, Ms. Lee was able to see justice and secure a future for her family after she is gone.”
He added that the family is “feeling super relieved that a jury heard their story and valued Kyung’s life and affirmed what she’s going through — and most importantly — held Johnson and Johnson responsible.”
The jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay her $60 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages, according to the news release.
Johnson & Johnson has been hit with a deluge of lawsuits in the years since reports emerged showing that the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and other products contained trace amounts of asbestos, with thousands of women blaming the company for causing their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma.
Many retailers stopped selling Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder in 2019, and the manufacturer discontinued the product in North America in 2020 and announced plans to reformulate it worldwide in 2022, switching to a cornstarch-based formula.
The company has also been pursing multiple large-scale settlements to try to resolve most of the lawsuits at once, although it has never admitted any wrongdoing and has contested the claims that its products caused cancer.
This article was originally published by a www.kgw.com
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