New Jersey Court Grants Summary Judgment To Johnson And Johnson In Talc-Ovarian Cancer Litigation After Excluding Plaintiffs' Experts
In Nov. of 2014, plaintiffs Brandi Carl and Diana Balderrama each filed a product liability suit against defendants Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America, Inc., in Atlantic County Superior Court, NJ, contending that a talc-based product manufactured by defendants caused them to develop ovarian cancer. Plaintiffs' actions and over 100 other similar suits were granted multi-county litigation status in 2015 by the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Defendants filed a motion to bar the testimony of plaintiffs' experts, Dr. Graham A. Colditz and Dr. Daniel W. Cramer, and a motion for summary judgment in the event the motion to bar expert testimony was granted. Judge Nelson C. Johnson granted the motion on Sept. 2, 2016, finding that the experts, despite their impressive credentials, failed to demonstrate that the "data or information used were soundly and reliably generated and were of a type reasonably relied upon by comparable experts." Defendants’ experts had opined that talc does not cause cancer, that cancer was caused by gene mutations, and that talc did not cause such mutations. The court likened the written reports and testimony of plaintiffs’ experts to a patchwork quilt that, without a clearly stated, demonstrable hypothesis of specific causation grounded in reliable methodology, had no thread.
Plaintiffs are represented by Richard Golomb and Ruben Honik of Golomb & Honik; Paul R D'Amato of D'Amato Law Firm; Ted Gordon Meadows and David B. Dearing of Beasley, Allen, Crow, & Methvin; Timothy W. Porter of Porter & Malouf; and Michelle Parfitt of Ashcraft & Gerel. Defendants are represented by Gene M. Williams, Hunter Ahern, and Mark Hegarty of Shook, Hardy & Bacon; Susan M. Sharko and Julie Tersigni of Drinker, Biddle & Reath; Michael Klatt, Kenneth J. Ferguson, and Ann Thornton Field of Gordon & Rees; and Lorna A. Dotro of Coughlin Duffy, LLP.
Lexis Advance subscribers can view the full summary, including expert information, here: Brandi Carl v. Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America, Inc.; Diana Balderrama v. Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America, Inc. (Talc-Based Powder Products Litigation); 2016 Jury Verdicts LEXIS 6768
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