Hair Relaxer Ovarian Cancer Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed by Surviving Family Member

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the rapidly growing hair relaxer cancer litigation, alleging that a Michigan woman’s use of several popular hair relaxer products since the 1990s caused her to develop ovarian cancer, culminating in her premature death.

In a complaint (PDF) brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on December 3, Siaka Yusuf is pursuing claims against L’Oréal USA Inc., L’Oréal USA Products Inc., SoftSheen-Carson LLC, AFAM Concept Inc. d/b/a JF Labs Inc., Strength of Nature LLC, Godrej SON Holdings Inc., McBride Research Laboratories Inc. as defendants, as personal representative of the Estate of Alice Yusuf.

The case is part of a wave of hair relaxer lawsuits that have been filed since late 2022, following the publication of a study that established a significant connection between hair relaxers and uterine cancer.

The research revealed that women who frequently use these products face a 156% increased risk of developing cancers compared to those who do not. Additional studies have also linked hair relaxers to an increased risk of ovarian cancer and other injuries.

Due to the similarities in factual and legal questions across hair relaxer cancer lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system, all cases have been centralized in the Northern District of Illinois under U.S. Judge Mary Rowland since February 2023, to streamline discovery and pretrial proceedings. However, the size and scope of the litigation continues to expand.

According to a recent docket report (PDF) issued by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) this week, there are now at least 9,649 cases pending in the Hair Relaxer lawsuit MDL, with more than 1,200 added over the last two months.

Not long after the litigation was established, the court approved a Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Master Long-Form Complaint, which has allowed individuals and families to bring new claims using an abbreviated Short-Form Complaint, where they can adopt certain allegations and claims relevant to the individual lawsuit.

In a recently filed short-form complaint, Siaka Yusuf indicates that manufacturers failed to warn Alice, as well as other consumers, about the risk of cancer from hair relaxers, which is now known to develop among some individuals routinely exposed to toxic chemicals used in the products.

According to the complaint, Alice Yusuf applied a series of hair relaxer products from 1990 through 2021, including:

• Vitale Mo’Body – Shea Butter Sensitive Scalp Relaxer with Oatmeal Protein
• Dark & Lovely Precise Diamond Straight & Shine Relaxer Cream (Regular)
• Dark & Lovely Regular Moisture Replenishing for Ultimate Body & Shine Limited Edition Package Special Song Download
• Dark & Lovely Moisture Seal plus SheaButter
• Design Essentials Regular Conditioning Relaxer
• Ultra Sheen Supreme No Base Creme Relaxer Olive Oil and Shea Butter (SUPER)

As a result of exposure to chemicals in these products, the hair relaxer wrongful death lawsuit indicates that Alice Yusuf was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on or about December 19, 2021, which ultimately resulted in her passing.

The complaint asserts claims for negligence, defective design, failure to warn, breach of implied and express warranty, unjust enrichment, wrongful death and survival action.

December 2024 Hair Relaxer Lawsuit Update

While the number of lawsuits continues to grow in the federal MDL, parties will be engaging in a hair relaxer fact discovery process throughout December 2024 and into 2025, where they will exchange crucial information and documents relevant to all of the claims.

In a recent docket entry, Judge Rowland set a deadline for completing written discovery by February 28, 2025, and oral fact discovery must be completed by September 30, 2025. Following this discovery phase, it is expected that Judge Rowland will instruct the parties to select a series of “bellwether” cases to go through case-specific fact discovery to be selected for a series of bellwether trials.

These cases will serve as representative claims for early trials to determine how juries will respond to similar evidence and allegations raised throughout the thousands of hair relaxer lawsuits pending in the MDL.

While the outcome of any early test trials held for these bellwether cases will not have any binding impact on other claims in the MDL, the average hair relaxer lawsuit payouts awarded by juries is expected to have a substantial impact on what the manufacturers may be required to pay to avoid the need for thousands of individual cases to go before juries in the future.

Lawyers are continuing to review new hair relaxer cancer and wrongful death lawsuits for women who were unknowingly exposed to the toxic chemicals in hair relaxer products, and developed any of the following forms of cancer or side effects:

• Uterine Cancer
• Endometrial Cancer
• Ovarian Cancer
• Uterine Fibroids (resulting in hysterectomy or myomectomy)