J&J Plan for Bankruptcy to End Talc Cancer Claims Rejected

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge rejected Johnson & Johnson’s third attempt to use bankruptcy to set up a multibillion-dollar trust fund to pay women who claim they got cancer using baby powder and other products allegedly tainted with a toxic substance. US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez on Monday dismissed the bankruptcy of a small J&J unit called Red River Talc following a two-week trial in Houston, finding that a vote of cancer victims on the proposal was flawed. J&J was trying for the third time to use a small unit to resolve all talc-related lawsuits involving ovarian cancer and other, similar gynecological diseases at once instead of facing trials around the country in different courts. The latest trust proposal would have set aside $9 billion for victims. Voting on the settlement included irregularities, among them was “an unreasonably short voting time for thousands of creditors, was all done to get to 75% at any cost,” Lopez said. What J&J Is Trying to Achieve in Bankruptcy...