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A group of plaintiffs, who allege that Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) talc-based baby powder caused their cancers, has lost their bid to block the company’s latest effort to use bankruptcy to resolve similar claims after a federal judge rejected their motion.
U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp delivered the ruling on Friday in response to a motion filed by the claimants in a New Jersey court early this month seeking a temporary restraining order to block J&J’s (JNJ) bankruptcy bid.
As part of the deal announced in May, the healthcare giant offered to pay ~$6.48B over 25 years to resolve its talc-related cancer claims. The courts in New Jersey denied its two previous attempts to use a bankruptcy maneuver to reach a settlement.
According to Reuters, the judge said he had to deny the motion as any harm to victims was “strictly hypothetical” and added he had no jurisdiction to settle a disagreement over “events that have not, and may never, occur.”
J&J (JNJ) has until July 29 to get 75% of claimants to vote in favor of the plan, a proposal it hadn’t used in the two previous bankruptcy attempts.