Philadelphia Jury Awards $250,000 in Johnson & Johnson Talc Ovarian Cancer Case

A Philadelphia jury on Friday found Johnson & Johnson liable for the death of a Pennsylvania woman who used the company's talc-based baby powder, awarding $250,000 in damages to her estate. The verdict came after more than three days of deliberation in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County and marks the first plaintiffs' win in the city's talc mass tort case against the healthcare giant, which encompasses roughly 175 cases.

The jury awarded $50,000 in compensatory damages to the family of Gayle Emerson, who died from ovarian cancer in November 2019, and $200,000 in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson. The jury sided with family members of Emerson, who claimed that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.

Emerson, a York, Pennsylvania resident, sued in 2019 and died six months later at the age of 68, according to court records. Her son and daughter took over as the plaintiffs after she died of metastatic ovarian cancer, according to the lawsuit. According to court testimony, Emerson used Johnson & Johnson's baby powder from 1969 until 2017, when she stopped after learning from a relative about its association with increased ovarian cancer risk. She had been diagnosed with the cancer two years earlier, the lawsuit said.

The three-week trial concluded on February 10, 2026 with closing arguments. Defense attorneys argued that Emerson's ovarian cancer was linked to other risk factors like regular douching, obesity, and age, rather than Johnson & Johnson's talc products. However, the plaintiff's attorney accused Johnson & Johnson of concealing the presence of asbestos in its baby powder for decades.

In a statement, the company's worldwide vice president of litigation said Johnson & Johnson plans to appeal. "This token verdict reflects the jury's appreciation that the claims were meritless and divorced from the science," the statement said.

An attorney who represented Emerson's estate said in a statement that the jury "found J&J's product and corporate conduct directly responsible for the death of Ms. Emerson." "While the jury's award is less than we hoped, and significantly less than the amount necessary to punish J&J for their outrageous conduct, we are moving forward," the statement said.

The trial result comes on the heels of a similar verdict in December, which ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $40 million to two women who blamed their ovarian cancer on talc use. The first ovarian cancer case to go to trial after the end of the bankruptcy-related pause resulted in a California jury awarding $40 million to two women in December.

Johnson & Johnson is facing lawsuits in federal and state courts from more than 67,000 plaintiffs who have alleged that its talc-based products contained asbestos and caused ovarian and other cancers, according to court filings. More than 70,000 lawsuits are currently consolidated in multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court, with the initial bellwether trial expected later this year.

The case marks the first of several trials scheduled for 2026 on similar claims against Johnson & Johnson. There are several cases slated for trial in state courts in the coming months. There has yet to be a trial in federal court, where most of the claims have been consolidated, but that could change this year after a U.S. federal magistrate judge ruled in January that the plaintiffs in the federal litigation can present testimony from experts that links baby powder use with ovarian cancer. Johnson & Johnson has said it will appeal the ruling.

Product liability lawsuits, such as the Johnson & Johnson cases, rely on experts to establish that the product is capable of causing the alleged harm. Over 30 peer-reviewed studies published in the last 40 years have found a statistical correlation between talcum powder use and ovarian cancer. In May 2024, National Institutes of Health researchers published findings supporting an association between genital powder use and ovarian cancer risk.

The company has said its products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product. In 2020, the company discontinued talc-based powders in North America, extending this ban worldwide in 2023.

Johnson & Johnson has sought to resolve the litigation through bankruptcy, a proposal that has been rejected three times by federal courts, most recently in April of last year. Johnson & Johnson made three unsuccessful attempts to consolidate talc liability claims under bankruptcy protection beginning in 2021, which paused litigation until last year. The bankruptcies had put most ovarian cancer cases on hold.

Before the bankruptcy attempts, Johnson & Johnson had a mixed record in talc trials, with verdicts as high as $4.69 billion. The company has won some trials outright and had other verdicts reduced on appeal. The company also faced over $2 billion in trial losses in the fourth quarter of 2025 related to talc exposure and mesothelioma claims. A Baltimore jury ordered the company to pay more than $1.5 billion in a mesothelioma trial in December.

The majority of lawsuits involve ovarian cancer claims. Cases alleging talc caused a rare and deadly cancer called mesothelioma make up a smaller portion of the claims Johnson & Johnson is facing. The company has previously settled some of those claims but has not struck a nationwide settlement, so many lawsuits over mesothelioma have proceeded to trial in state courts in recent months.

Johnson & Johnson reported 2025 revenues of $94.2 billion and anticipates exceeding $100 billion in annual revenue by year-end 2026.