J&J Can’t Keep California Woman’s Talc Suit in Federal Court

Johnson & Johnson lost a bid to get a California woman’s suit alleging its talcum powder caused her ovarian cancer into federal court.

It would be inequitable for Linda Collison, who filed her suit in 2018, to have to proceed in an inconvenient federal forum, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said May 1.

It sent Collison’s suit back to a state court in Los Angeles.

The ruling is an early blow to J&J, which is seeking to have about 2,400 state-court suits moved to federal court in Delaware, where its supplier, Imerys Talc America Inc., ...