Jury Awards California Woman $50 Million in Talc Suit Against Avon and Hyster

A California state court jury in Los Angeles has awarded a 76-year-old woman and her husband over $50 million in damages finding the malignant mesothelioma she was diagnosed with was caused by Avon cosmetics containing asbestos-tainted talc and asbestos laced manufactured forklift parts from her husband’s job.

Attorneys in Ms. Chapman’s case claimed the talc and asbestos-containing cosmetics she used from Avon were to blame for her cancer. She began using Avon when she was 8 years old and continued to use body and face powders for the majority of her life. Avon offered talc goods from all over the world, including industrial talc, for use on women and children in their homes, including body and face powder.

Mr. Chapman also worked for a Hyster forklift manufacturer. He worked with and among people using brakes, clutches, and gaskets laced with asbestos. Ms. Chapman was further exposed when she washed his work clothing. The jury was informed that Hyster continued to sell asbestos parts up until 2003, lied about when it first learned about the hazards of asbestos, deleted records after being sued, and got brake suppliers to remove asbestos warnings before selling them to the general public.

The jury rendered two verdicts against Avon Product’s Inc. The first verdict found Avon’s negligence in manufacturing caused Rita Chapman’s malignant mesothelioma by exposing her to asbestos while using the products. The jury assigned 90% of the blame to Avon and the other 10% to Hyster-Yale Group Inc., the successor in interest to a forklift manufacturer.

In the first phase of the trial, the jury awarded Rita Chapman $32.8 million in compensatory damages and her husband was awarded $8 million. After the initial verdict, the punitive damages trial commenced and a second verdict was returned, awarding an additional $11.3 million in punitive damages. Avon will be required to pay $10.3 million of the punitive damages and Hyster-Yale will pay $1 million.

According to the jury, there was a manufacturing defect in Avon’s product and the product “failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect. The benefits of the product design did not outweigh the risks, and those risks were known or should have been known given the scientific and medical knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community at the time of the sale.”

The jury found that both companies also failed to warn consumers about the potential risks and this failure was a factor in Chapman’s cancer. Additionally, the jury found Avon guilty of fraud when the company intentionally failed to disclose information that could have affected how Chapman used the product.

Several companies including Boeing Co., Ford Motor Co. and Johnson & Johnson were cleared of any liability in the matter.

This case was not the first time Avon’s products have been sued for causing cancer. In a recent claim, talc supplier Whittaker Clark & Daniels settled with Linda Zimmerman, a California teacher, who claimed she developed mesothelioma from using powders sold by several companies, including Avon. Zimmerman claimed she had used the powders consistently since 1954 and never had any idea they could be dangerous until she was diagnosed with cancer.