A Chicago jury says health and beauty product maker Avon owes $24.4 million to a man who claims he contracted lung cancer from asbestos exposure while working as a janitor at a Chicago area Avon facility four decades ago.
On July 26, the jury in Cook County Circuit Court found in favor of plaintiffs Cipriano and Maria Ramirez after a nearly month long trial.
According to court documents, Cipriano Ramirez worked at Avon’s facility in northwest suburban Morton Grove in the early 1980s.
Cipriano Ramirez then contracted the lung cancer known as mesothelioma, which forms in thin tissue surrounding the lungs. The cancer is rare and deadly, and most commonly forms as the result of exposure to asbestos or similar inhaled substances.
Ramirez’s lawsuit asserted he contracted the illness after being exposed to asbestos allegedly contained in contaminated talc products processed and manufactured at the Morton Grove plant.
According to court documents, Ramirez was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2023.
Questions over asbestos exposure from talc have spurred tens of thousands of lawsuits throughout the U.S. against companies that used talc in their products.
Johnson & Johnson alone, for instance, faces more than 61,000 such lawsuits brought by individuals and public and private entities, as well as shareholders.
In many of those lawsuits, plaintiffs lawyers have backed their cases with testimony from experts, who have been paid to testify talc powder contains asbesots in quantities high enough to cause cancer. That testimony at times came from the same experts who had testitifed in separate proceedings over industrial asbestos exposure that talc did not contain enough asbestos to cause cancer.
J&J has continuously denied its talc products caused cancer and has vigorously contested the scientific basis for the carcinogenic claims. That company has notably accused a prominent talc expert witness of fraud, asserting she has testified repeatedly about anonymous mesothelioma victims she said had no known exposure to asbestos other than talc, when she had earlier testified about such exposure from other products.
Other expert witnesses have testified in support of talc asbestos lawsuits, despite have earlier called such causation theories “urban legend” or having earlier admitted to bank fraud and money laundering.
J&J is attempting to settle the claims on a nearly universal basis for $11 billion. However, that settlement is still being contested in court.
In the meantime, other talc asbestos exposure lawsuits, such as the one brought in Cook County by the Ramirezes, are continuing and advancing to trial.
In a release concerning the verdict, the Ramirezes’ attorneys from the firm of Simmons Hanly Conroy said the verdict came in spite of “reprehensible attempts” by Avon to persuade jurors that Cipriano Ramirez’s cancer had arisen from other sources.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said the company attempted to “impugn” Cipriano Ramirez’s “dignity and integrity.”
“Mr. Ramirez dedicated his life to working hard for his family,” said attorney James Kramer, who served as co-lead counsel at trial. “He should be enjoying retirement but has been forced to spend his time fighting a cancer that could have been prevented.”
Simmons Hanly Conroy attorney Jennifer Alesio also served as lead counsel in the case.
Avon did not respond to a request for comment on the decision, or to questions from The Record concerning if the company intended to appeal or seek a new trial
This article was first published in Cook County Record.
