The first bellwether trial to come out of the MDL has been postponed by Judge
Katz for two weeks. The trial was supposed to start today, Monday, September 9 in Cleveland, Ohio.
The reason for the continuance is that there remain outstanding issues that must be resolved by the Court.
For
instance, the Defendants filed a Daubert motion last Wednesday on one of the Plaintiff's key
expert witnesses. Also, the Court had not yet ruled on the critical choice of
law issue that impacts punitive damages (DePuy arguing Indiana or for United Kingdom law
to apply). Defendants also just objected to 600 of the 700 exhibits
identified by the Plaintiff for which the Court has yet to even begun to review.
DePuy served a rebuttal expert report yesterday that the Plaintiff has not had a chance to address.
These and other pending motions must be resolved before either side can open
its case and therefore the Court is opting to adjourn the trial for two weeks.
