BRANDI CARL, ET AL. VS. JOHNSON & JOHNSON JOHNSON CONSUMER COMPANIES, INC., ET AL (L-6546-14 AND L-6540-14, ATLANTIC COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (CONSOLIDATED) (A-0387-16T1/A-0978-16T1)
Post Accutane, the court reversed summary judgment granted to defendants regarding plaintiffs' claims that their use of Johnson & Johnson baby powder had a causal connection to their development of ovarian cancer. In re: Accutane, 234 N.J. 340 (2018). The cases were the first two selected to be tried in the talc-based baby powder multi-county litigation.
Applying the analytical structure found in the Federal Judicial Center's Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (Third Ed. 2011), the court concluded, after detailed consideration of the experts’ lengthy N.J.R.E. 104 hearing testimony and reports, that their methodology was generally recognized in the field and the data upon which they relied was generally accepted for that use in the field. See Accutane, 234 N.J. at 352-53, 390. The experts hypothesized a connection between the migration of talc and inflammation to explain the development of ovarian cancers like plaintiffs’. The trial judge's suppression of their opinions was an abuse of discretion, as he failed to limit his decision to whether their methodology and data were generally accepted and relied upon in the relevant scientific field and instead rejected the merits of the opinions themselves, finding them less credible than those of defendants’ experts
