Source: https://www.ahearnelaw.com/blog/2017/november/depuy-johnson-johnson-product-liability-mdl-news/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 12:22:10+00:00

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On November 13th, a U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas federal jury began deliberating in the multiplaintiff DePuy Pinnacle hip bellwether trial after nine weeks of testimony (In Re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 11-md-02244, Ramon Alicea, et al. v. DePuy Orthopaedics., Inc., et al., No. 15-03489, Uriel Barzel v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al., No. 16-1245, Karen Kirschner v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al., No. 16-1526, Hazel Miura v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al., No. 13-4119, Michael A. Stevens v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al., No. 14-1776, Eugene Stevens Jr. v. DePuy Orthopaedics, et al., No. 14-2341, N.D. Texas).
The trial involves six consolidated hip replacement lawsuits filed on behalf of New York plaintiffs who allegedly suffered serious complications related to the premature failure of their Pinnacle device. During opening statements, the plaintiffs’ attorney asserted that DePuy and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, brought the all-metal Pinnacle hip to market even though they knew the device was defectively manufactured. The attorney also argued that the defendants’ internal emails, a study commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, and marketing materials would prove that they had had employed deceptive means to induce surgeons to use metal-on-metal hip implants. DePuy has recently called upon Judge Kinkeade to declare a mistrial, alleging that plaintiffs had prejudiced the jury by making inappropriate references to other hip implant litigation.
A bellwether trial is a preliminary, or “test” trial ordered by the federal court overseeing an MDL. These trials test jury reaction to a case or cases selected as representative of the MDL plaintiff pool. The outcome of an MDL’s bellwether trials may encourage an appropriate group settlement of all cases consolidated under that MDL, as large plaintiff verdicts may prompt defendants to consider settlement instead of incurring the risk of additional legal fees, court costs and judgments.
Johnson & Johnson prevailed in the first bellwether trial in 2014, and the second bellwether trial in March 2016 yielded a $500 million jury award to five plaintiffs. The court ordered that $140 million would be applied to collective compensatory damages with $360 million being awarded in punitive damages. After the trial, Judge Kinkeade reduced the $360,000,000 punitive damages award to $9,646,256 pursuant to a Texas statute capping punitive damages. DePuy Orthopaedics and Johnson & Johnson appealed the decision and the plaintiffs filed their brief in response.

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