Client Advisory

In a significant discovery ruling with implications for nation-wide cosmetic-talc litigation, the New York Supreme Court has compelled Northwell Health Inc. (“Northwell”) to produce internal research data related to two scholarly articles authored by Dr. Jacqueline Moline – publications that have been central to plaintiffs’ causation theories in mesothelioma cases. The decision follows nearly two years of interstate litigation under the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act (UIDDA) and marks the latest development in defendants’ efforts to uncover the truth behind Dr. Moline’s litigation-born opinions.

In early 2024, in the New Jersey case Clark v. Johnson & Johnson (J&J), J&J and related entities issued subpoenas seeking information identifying the unnamed subjects in Dr. Moline’s 2020 and 2023 articles linking cosmetic talc use to mesothelioma. The company argued, similar to defendants in other cases, that the articles – widely cited in talc litigation – rested on a false premise: that the individuals studied had no asbestos exposure other than cosmetic talc. A review of anonymized biographical information for the subjects referenced in Dr. Moline’s articles suggested that multiple subjects were plaintiffs with talc claims who had documented non-talc asbestos exposures, including cigarette filters, degrading pipe insulation, and asbestos-containing materials.

Northwell, which employs Dr. Moline and maintained the research database used for her publications, resisted the J&J subpoenas, as it had with other defendants’ attempts to subpoena the information, asserting jurisdictional, procedural, and privacy-based objections. After the New Jersey court directed J&J to proceed through New York’s UIDDA process, the company filed a special proceeding in New York County Supreme Court to enforce the subpoena.

Justice Silvera initially denied the enforcement, but the Appellate Division, First Department reversed in October 2024, holding that the identities of the article subjects were “clearly relevant” to the underlying New Jersey action. The Court of Appeals later denied Northwell’s motion for leave to appeal, clearing the way for enforcement.

Despite the appellate rulings, Northwell produced only an alphabetized list of names – stripped of the case-number correlations necessary to determine which individuals corresponded to which case descriptions in the articles. J&J argued that this production was deliberately scrambled and unusable, noting that Dr. Moline herself testified that she could only match names to article subjects by using the full dataset stored on Northwell’s servers.

At a November 18, 2025 hearing before Justice Gerald Lebovits, the court pressed Northwell on its position. J&J emphasized that Northwell had previously produced a redacted version of a “key” linking names to case numbers in unrelated litigation and that Dr. Moline had testified she had accessed the unredacted version at Northwell’s direction. Northwell countered that J&J’s subpoena lacked specificity and that it had complied with J&J’s literal request to “identify” the individuals.

Justice Lebovits rejected the narrow reading. In an interim order issued the same day, the court directed Northwell to produce “the entirety of the information on its databases concerning Dr. Moline’s 2020 and 2023 articles” as described in Dr. Moline’s deposition testimony. The court set a firm deadline of November 25, 2025, warning that failure to comply could result in contempt.

Northwell subsequently produced the unredacted keys, and, on November 26, 2025, J&J notified the court that the production appeared complete. As a result, Northwell withdrew its request for sanctions. On December 2, 2025, Justice Lebovits issued a final order marking the motion “granted in part and withdrawn in part,” formally disposing of the special proceeding.

This ruling represents a significant judicial directive requiring disclosure of research subject identities in the context of litigation-generated scientific publications. It also highlights the growing scrutiny of purported “scientific” opinions developed through mass torts litigation.