J&J Competing Cancer Victim Groups Complicate Unit’s Bankruptcy

A federal bankruptcy watchdog’s unusual push to create two asbestos-related cancer victim groups in a Johnson & Johnson spinoff’s Chapter 11 case reveals tensions on how they would get paid.

The U.S. Trustee, a Justice Department unit overseeing bankruptcies, tried to set up one official committee representing mesothelioma victims’ interests and another for ovarian cancer claimants.

The two types of cancer—allegedly brought on by asbestos in J&J’s baby powder products—are sufficiently different to warrant separate representation, the U.S. Trustee said. The health care giant and its spinoff LTL Management LLC oppose having to deal with two official committees, whose expenses ...