Dean
PITTSBURGH - Asbestos lawyers are asking a Pennsylvania appeals court to review the results of a trial in which jurors found Johnson & Johnson wasn't to blame for a woman's illness and death but still tried to punish the company anyway.
The firm Dean Omar recently appealed its loss in Pittsburgh state court to the state Superior Court, which will have to sort out what happened in the case of Michaeleen Lee. The firm alleged J&J's talc in Baby Powder contained asbestos and caused Lee's mesothelioma.
Jurors said Dean Omar didn't prove it did but they were still angry at the company for some reason and attempted to award Lee's estate $22 million in punitive damages. On July 1, Dean Omar filed its statement of errors in the case.
"Under Pennsylvania law, the Court was required to correct this inconsistency by either 1) asking the jury to clarify its verdict, or 2) ordering a new trial," the brief says.
"As this Court declined to ask the jury to clarify its verdict, a new trial is required."
Erik Haas, the worldwide vice president of litigation for J&J, said the verdict in Pittsburgh showed the jury refused the "baseless claims of the mass tort plaintiffs' bar."
"(T)his litigation is driven (by) paid-for science fomented and financed by plaintiffs' firms - which in this instance was squarely refuted by the irrefutable evidence that plaintiff's disease was caused by exposures other than the company's talc products," he added.
Dean Omar, which now has a Pittsburgh office, in February asked for a new trial. It called the verdict "ambiguous and inconsistent," then blamed the trial judge for allowing an expert to offer testimony about Lee's potential asbestos exposures while teaching at Bucks County Community College.
"Contrary to Defense counsel's suggestion, the jury's answer to the punitive damages questions were not mere surplusage that could be 'ignored' simply because of the jury's answers to preceding questions," the motion for a new trial said.
J&J replied March 17, faulting Dean Omar lawyer Jessica Dean for calling the trial a "miserable process" in which she wasn't allowed time to question some witnesses. Three jurors dropped out during the trial, which featured a holiday break in December, and it took the jury only two hours to reach a verdict for J&J.
"None of that is true," lawyers for J&J wrote. "The Court was extremely patient and gave Plaintiff 70% of the trial time, allowing her to keep her case open for a week longer than originally planned. If anyone's presentation was squeezed, it was Defendants' case."
Dean Omar lost "fair and square," J&J says. Dean Omar's statement of errors with the trial includes gripes about testimony from J&J experts and jurors hearing about a previous lawsuit filed by Lee.
She had blamed other companies for her asbestos exposure in a 2023 Philadelphia lawsuit but discontinued the case later that year.
