By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing – Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) fell more than 1.5% Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the company’s plea against a lower court’s $2.12 billion order in a case involving its baby powder.
J&J argued that this litigation could influence the outcome in more than 19,000 other cases that it faces.
The justices turned away a J&J appeal and left in place a Missouri state court ruling in a lawsuit brought by 22 women who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in the company's baby powder and other talc products.
The company couldn’t convince the Supreme Court that the single judge’s decision to consolidate unrelated baby powder-related claims from the plaintiffs – including 17 women from outside the state – violated its due process rights.
One of the products that the out-of-state plaintiffs said they had used was manufactured in Missouri.