DePuy Metal Hip Lawsuits Continue to Mount Following $1B Pinnacle Verdict

Following a recent $1 billion verdict in a bellwether trial over problems with DePuy Pinnacle metal hips, lawsuits continue to be filed against Johnson & Johnson and it’s DePuy Orthopaedics subsidiary by individuals nationwide.

The manufacturers already face nearly 9,000 product liability lawsuits that allege the DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip replacement was defectively designed and prone to release metallic debris that may cause loosening of the implant and failure. However, a steady stream of new complaints are still being filed by individuals who experienced problems and recently required risky revision surgery.

At least two new lawsuits have already been filed this week, including one complaint (PDF) filed by Nancy Powers, of Lapeer, Michigan, and another

complaint (PDF) filed by Warren Blanchard, Jr., of Bridgewater, Vermont. Each of the lawsuits present similar fact patterns, indicate that plaintiffs received the DePuy metal hip, which later shed cobalt and chromium metal particles into their bodies and caused the hip replacement to fail.

The new cases come on the heels of a landmark bellwether verdict returned in a bellwether trial that ended late last week, with a jury awarding $32 million in compensatory damages to six different plaintiffs who received a DePuy Pinnacle hip, as well as another $1.09 billion in punitive damages designed to punish the manufacturers for their actions concerning the design and sale of the controversial metal-on-metal hip replacement system.

Like the plaintiffs in this recent trial, Powers indicates that she received a DePuy Pinnacle hip during a left total hip arthroplasty in April 2010, which featured an Ultamet metal liner on the hip joint. She subsequently began to suffer severe pain and discomfort, due to elevated levels of metal ions that were released into her body, ultimately resulting in revision surgery in July 2016. Blanchard indicates that he received a DePuy Pinnacle metal hip in December 2005, and similar problems caused him to require revision surgery to replace the right hip implant in September 2016.

“After the surgery, friction and wear between the cobalt-chromium metal head and cobalt-chromium metal liner caused large amounts of toxic cobalt-chromium metal ions and metal particles to be released into Plaintiff’s blood and tissue and bone surrounding the implants,” Blanchard’s lawsuit states. “As a result, Plaintiff, experienced severe pain and discomfort and inflammation in and around his implant.”

Both cases are likely to be transferred to the DePuy Pinnacle hip multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is currently centralized before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in the Northern District of Texas for coordinated pretrial proceedings. In addition, as more DePuy Pinnacle metal hips continue to fail and require revision surgery in the coming months and years, the number of claims filed nationwide is likely to continue to rise steadily.

DePuy Pinnacle Hip Litigation

As part of the coordinated MDL proceedings before Judge Kinkeade, a series of bellwether trials have been scheduled to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

In addition to the recent $1 billion verdict, which involved a group of plaintiffs from California, an earlier bellwether trial involving a group of five plaintiffs from Texas resulted in a $500 million verdict in March, including $140 million in combined compensatory damages and another $360 million in punitives. Although the verdict was reduced to $151 million under Texas state laws, the trial last week is not limited by the same damage caps.

Another DePuy Pinnacle bellwether trial is expected to go to trial in September 2017, unless the manufacturer resolves the litigation before then. With the growing number of cases and substantial verdicts returned in early trials, Johnson & Johnson may consider paying to reach DePuy metal hip settlements, rather than allowing additional claims to go to trial.

The manufacturer previously agreed to pay more than $2.4 billion in DePuy ASR metal hip settlements, resolving about 8,000 cases brought on behalf of individuals who received this newer metal-on-metal hip design, which was recalled from the market in 2010 after a higher-than-expected failure rate became evidence. Although the DePuy ASR was based on the design of the Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip, Johnson & Johnson previously refused to negotiate any large settlement for the cases pending before Judge Kinkeade.