J&J’s Bankruptcy Effort Fails High Court Test, Holdouts Say
- Ruling in Purdue Pharma case blocks plan to end cancer suits
- J&J manipulating bankruptcy system to get low-cost settlement
The new insolvency case is J&J’s latest attempt to use special bankruptcy rules that allow corporations to force an end to all product-liability lawsuits.
Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/BloombergJohnson & Johnson’s third effort to end lawsuits claiming its baby powder caused thousands of women to get cancer should be dismissed because it violates US Supreme Court precedent and twists the purpose of the American bankruptcy system, holdout creditors said in court papers.
The health-care giant can’t force women with ovarian cancer to join a proposed, $8 billion settlement under a ruling earlier this year by the top US court, lawyers who have long fought J&J argued. In June, justices voted 5-4 to reject the attempt by drugmaker Purdue Pharma to impose a $6 billion deal on holdouts opposed to an agreement that would have ended years of addiction claims related to the opioid epidemic.