Levy Konigsberg is representing over 100 victims and families who claim that their use of J&J’s Baby Powder products caused their mesothelioma in a series of new lawsuits targeting J&J’s latest spinoff company.
As reported on this press release, our firm filed 116 mesothelioma lawsuits against Kenvue, a consumer health spinoff created by J&J as a new publicly traded company. The talc cases against Kenvue are currently allowed to proceed following a denial of J&J’s motion to dismiss Kenvue as a newly added party in the ongoing talc powder cancer suits coordinated in Middlesex County, New Jersey. J&J had argued that Kenvue was not a liable as a successor to the baby powder business and that a bankruptcy filed by a separate J&J subsidiary prevented the new filings against Kenvue from proceeding.
Kenvue, which made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange as part of a $41 billion IPO in May, is slated by J&J to operate as a “company within a company” and does in fact own J&J’s Baby product lines, which include products such as Johnson’s Baby Powder and Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, in addition to other recognizable brands like Tylenol, Band-Aid, Listerine, Aveeno, and Neutrogena.
What is Kenvue?
Kenvue is a new public company that has taken over J&J consumer health businesses. The creation of Kenvue has raised questions about J&J’s continuing actions to protect itself from liabilities associated with thousands of allegations that its talc baby power cause cancer. Kenvue’s predecessor company, Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc., was split into two companies in October 2021, with the talc liabilities put into one of the companies (Legacy Talc Litigation Management LLC). Just days after the creation of LTL, it filed for bankruptcy, resulting in the stay of tens of thousands of lawsuits previously filed against J&J and its subsidiary JJCI. The move, known as the “Texas Two-Step,” has been widely criticized as an abuse of the bankruptcy system and a litigation tactic that corporations use to escape liability and deny justice in trial courts for victims they’ve harmed.
In January 2023, a federal appeals court dismissed the LTL bankruptcy, finding that the case was filed in bad faith, but J&J directed LTL to re-file the bankruptcy just two hours after the first bankruptcy was dismissed.
Levy Konigsberg is Continuing the Fight for Talc Powder Victims
With J&J’s shell subsidiary LTL once again in bankruptcy, Levy Konigsberg is continuing the fight against J&J and its latest creation Kenvue, which has not filed for bankruptcy. According to an SEC filing by Kenvue, J&J had\s agreed to indemnify Kenvue for talc-related liability.
Partner Jerry Block, who recently appeared in a CNN documentary about the J&J talc litigation, noted that the addition of Kenvue is simply a continuation of the ongoing battle to help victims obtain full and fair compensation from J&J, and all liable parties, for cancers caused by asbestos in Johnson’s Baby Powder.
“J&J’s abuse of the bankruptcy system to delay jury trials for cancer victims must end. J&J cannot avoid jury trials through bad faith bankruptcies or corporate spin-offs. Kenvue is now profiting from the Johnson’s Baby Powder business and is liable, along with Johnson & Johnson, under well-established New Jersey law.”
Read the full press release about our latest filings here.
