Johnson & Johnson holders allowed to sue as a class over talc disclosures, judge rules

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shareholders can pursue a category motion lawsuit that accuses the corporate of fraudently conceiling how its talc merchandise had been allegedly contanimated by cancer-causing asbestos.

U.S. Disitrict Choose Zahid Quraishi allowed holders as of Dec. 13, 2013 to Feb. 22, 2018 to pursue securities fraud lawsuit as a category, in response to a Reuters report on Friday.

The choose rejected J&J arguments that any class interval ought to be a yr shorter becuase some occasions that trigger JNJ’s inventory worth to fall contained no “new” info, in response to the report.

The ruling comes as J&J (JNJ) chief litigation lawyer in October mentioned the pharma large was weighing the potential of a 3rd chapter submitting try for subsidiary LTL Administration, which was particularly created to deal with talc claims.

The chapter courtroom in July denied LTL’s submitting, saying it had not proven it’s in monetary misery. As a part of its second chapter try, LTL supplied $8.9B to settle all present and future talc claims.