It is being
reported that Johnson & Johnson, which faces about 8,000 lawsuits over hip
implants it recalled in 2010, agreed to pay approximately $600,000 to resolve
three cases in the first settlements of the litigation. This amount seems to be
on the low end of what the corporation should have expected to pay to settle
the claims. In fact so low, that the plaintiffs are now claiming that some party
breached the confidentiality agreement by leaking a misleadingly low figure,
and have asked the court to set aside the confidentialty agreement so they can
set the record straight. The hearing on that issue is in about a month.
The three
Nevada plaintiffs had filed jointly, claiming similar issues that resulted in
obligatory revision surgery. The plaintiffs, Annelise Rundle, Martha Bender and Katherine
Guy were set for trial Dec. 3.
Rundle, 74,
Bender, 69, and Guy, 60, all had ASR hip replacements done by the same surgeon
during the past six years, court filings in Las Vegas show. All three later had
the artificial hips removed after experiencing pain and other side effects,
according to the filings. Tests on Rundle showed she had health problems
associated with metal filings from her hip, her lawyers said in the filings. In
Bender’s case, doctors discovered evidence of bone damage from the device,
lawyers said.
The complaint
plead failure to warn, negligence, deceptive trade practices, and other
allegations. Had the trio's case gone to court, it would have been the first
ASR lawsuit tried in court. The consolidated Nevada cases are Rundle v. DePuy Orthopaedics
Inc., A-11-636272, Clark County District Court (Las Vegas).
J&J’s DePuy
unit recalled its 93,000 ASR hips worldwide in 2010, including 37,000 in the
U.S., because studies conducted showed more than 12 percent of the devices
failed within five years. Lawsuits in federal and state courts describe
patients in pain and immobilized by joint dislocations, infections and bone
fractures. Plaintiffs are also claiming metal debris from the hips, made from a
cobalt and chromium alloy, causes necrosis of the soft tissue around the joint
and an increase of metal ions in the bloodstream to harmful levels.
J&J faces more than
8,000 cases alleging the ASR hips are defective, according to court filings.
U.S. District Judge David Katz in Toledo, Ohio, is overseeing about 6,000
federal suits that have been consolidated in the ASR MDL. The federal case is
In re DePuy Orthopedics Inc., ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation,
10-MD-2197, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Toledo). The corporation
is also defending itself in more than 2,000 cases filed in courts in
California, Maryland, Nevada and other states.
The company
said in January that it spent about $800 million on the recall during the past
two years. It wouldn’t estimate its product-liability costs associated with all
of the lawsuits.
J&J faces a
state-court trial in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in January involving
three hip-replacement recipients. Those cases would now be the first to go to
trial if they are not resolved prior to trial. The MDL trial of claims over the
devices is expected in March or April of 2013. Some estimate it may cost the products
manufacturer as much as $2 billion to resolve all litigation over DePuy’s ASR
hips.
J&J’s stock
price rose 8 cents to $67.78 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The
company’s 4.95 percent bonds, due to mature in May 2033, fell $1.23, or 1
percent, to $121 after news of the hip settlements was announced.
