Firm Wins Appeal on Behalf of Johnson & Johnson in Talc Action
October, 2024 - New York, New York
Patterson Belknap secured a significant victory for our client, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), in a years-long effort to obtain data that is likely to debunk the made-for-litigation “science” driving talc personal injury claims against J&J in courts throughout the country. In an October 8, 2024 order, New York’s Appellate Division, First Department reversed a New York trial court’s decision not to enforce out-of-state subpoenas directed at a New York resident plaintiffs’ expert, Dr. Jacqueline Moline, and her employer, Northwell Health. The First Department held that Moline and Northwell Health needed to produce records identifying the names of participants in Moline's seminal 2020 and 2023 articles purporting to proclaim a relationship between cosmetic talc use and mesothelioma. The Court found that those individuals—who were themselves litigation plaintiffs who had hired Moline to testify in their cases—had no interest in their public litigation files being kept secret, and this information was “clearly relevant” to J&J’s defense of the underlying talc personal injury claims because it was likely to undermine Moline’s published premise that these individuals had “no other exposures” to asbestos.
Patterson Belknap continues to represent J&J in its talc products liability cases.
To read the court's opinion, please click here and here.
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