Johnson & Johnson tries bankruptcy a third time for talc liabilities

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

11 hours ago


Johnson & Johnson on Friday took a third swing at using bankruptcy court to shed the talc liabilities that have troubled the company for years.

Why it matters: Two previous attempts to place a specially created subsidiary into Chapter 11 protection failed after courts ruled the parent company wasn't broke and therefore couldn't use bankruptcy to its advantage.

Driving the news: J&J subsidiary Red River Talc LLC filed for Chapter 11 in a proposed settlement covering tens of thousands of cases in which victims say talc in the company's baby powder caused their ovarian cancer.

Under the settlement, J&J will contribute $8.9 billion over 25 years — and it has the support of 83% of current claimants that voted on it. The original offer was $2 billion.

It "constitutes one of the largest settlements ever reached in a mass tort bankruptcy case," J&J said in a statement, adding that alleged victims would get "a far better recovery than they stand to recover at trial."

The company has since discontinued its baby powder but maintains that it was safe.

The big picture: Experts call the court maneuver a "Texas two-step," a controversial process in which the parent company places certain liabilities in a separate legal entity, and then ditches them in bankruptcy.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/09/20/johnson-talc-bankruptcy-ovarian-cancer

[Irish_Dem]

1. When you are rich you are allowed to manipulate the legal system.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Of course, there are ties to DUMP...

Robert Wood Johnson founded health products giant Johnson & Johnson in 1886, providing the world with dental floss and first-aid kits.
His son, Robert Wood Johnson II, was nicknamed "The General" and took over the family business in 1932, in the process turning it into a global brand.
The General and brother Seward Johnson both died with enormous fortunes; The General left the bulk of his to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The rest went to heirs, including fourth generation sibling Woody Johnson, the New York Jets owner and former ambassador to the U.K. in the Trump White House.
Woody's 2017 federal financial disclosure said he had $1.7 billion in wealth outside the Jets; recent ones are unclear on where those assets stand.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. Thanks for posting

Corporations never die.....

They just keep cutting off parts of themselves to let rot in bankruptcy or possessing other corporations through mergers and consolidations. Then letting the new entity pick up the tab for their unabated greed.

Telling me again how corporations are people too?

[slightlv]

4. That's one thing I'd like to see changed with new administration.

If they want the rights and privileges of being "people," then they must accept the liabilities that come with it, as well. Put the CEO, CFO, etc., whichever is proper in the case in prison if whatever court case is adjudicated "guilty."

Otherwise, corporations are NOT people and have no rights. I swear, they want to have it both ways and I, for one, say enough of that! The american-made oligarchs must be made to pay the price of admission into this country; and that means abiding by the laws and regulations of this country, and not trying to create or use every loophole to avoid being "good citizens."