District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Texas has finalized the $245 million judgments for New York plaintiffs reached by the jury in November 2017 in a bellwether case against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over its allegedly defective DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants that failed, injuring patients across the U.S. (A bellwether trial is a case that the court and the parties select to test their arguments, with the goal of moving the overall larger litigation towards resolution.) The verdict, now final, is intended to compensate plaintiffs for past and future medical expenses, as well as for pain and suffering from hip implant failures.
From 2002 to 2012, DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, manufactured and sold metal-on-metal hip implants under the brand name Pinnacle that relied upon a metal liner (called the Ultramet metal liner). Numerous patients alleged that these metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants shed poisonous metal ions into patients’ bodies and also failed, causing severe injuries including permanent muscle loss and loss of hip movement, and requiring painful and expensive revision surgery.
Plaintiffs told the jury that J&J utilized cheap and unsafe materials when manufacturing the hip implants, in addition to not testing the devices on humans before putting them on the market. Consequently, plaintiffs suffered from various symptoms of a failing hip implant, including severe tissue damage, pain in the groin, hip or leg, swelling near the hip joint, or a limp or other reduction in walking ability.
The jury found J&J and DePuy liable for design and manufacturing defects, fraud, malicious conduct, and deceptive business practices. As reported by Law360, “U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade granted about $39.2 million to Uriel Barzel, $38.9 million to Ramon Alicea, $48.6 million to Karen Kirschner, $36.8 million to Eugene Stevens, $37.8 million to Michael Stevens and $43.7 to Hazel Miura for damages such as past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, punitive damages and loss of consortium.”
Contact a DePuy Pinnacle Hip Injury Attorney
Lieff Cabraser represents patients across America in personal injury lawsuits against DePuy, Johnson & Johnson, and other hip implant manufacturers over allegations of defective and dangerous prosthetic products. Over the last 20 years, Lieff Cabraser has assisted thousands of patients recover millions in judgments and settlements in medical device injury cases. If you have been injured by a Depuy Pinnacle hip implant, or any similar hip device, our injury attorneys encourage you to contact us for a free, no-obligation review of your case.
Contact us
Use the form below to contact a lawyer at Lieff Cabraser.
