NCAA Anti-Trust Case Going to Trial

U.S. District Judge Wilken ruled that the O'Bannon NCAA Anti-Trust case is going to trial. She stated from the bench that perhaps not all of the Plaintiffs' claims will be tried, but she will not toss out the entire case. She has not issued a specific order as to the summary judgment motions. The NCAA was obviously very upset with her ruling. The case is scheduled to go to trial June 9 and is slated to last 19 days. 

For more on this story, click on the link below:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/02/20/ed-obannon-antitrust-ncaa-player-likeness-case-trial/5659807/

Another fight that is going on in the case is the Plaintiffs' probable move to broaden the scope of the class. It appears that counsel for the Plaintiffs want to enlarge the class to include current players whose games are broadcast live. The NCAA is vehemently against broadening the class definition and will most certainly oppose the attempt. John Solomon of The Birmingham News/al.com wrote a piece on this topic. Click the link below for more on this story:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/02/ncaa_opposes_ed_obannon_plaint.html#incart_river_default

Former College Football Player Ray Hudson's Story Is Sadly Like So Many Others

John Solomon of The Birmingham Times and al.com wrote a great piece on former University of Alabama running back Ray Hudson. John Solomon has done an excellent job covering the NCAA concussion lawsuit and I have posted links to other articles he has written on previous blog posts. 

Ray Hudson is one of the former "student-athletes" suing the NCAA over concussions. His story is sadly similar to so many others who filed suit. His case was filed in Florida and has been transferred to the consolidated MDL action in Illinois. 

Click on the link below for the full article.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/02/ex-alabama_rb_ray_hudson_copes.html

Biomet Settles Metal-On-Metal MDL

It was reported last week that Warsaw, Indiana-based Biomet Inc. agreed to pay at least $56 million to settle claims in the Indiana MDL over defective metal-on-metal hip implants. Thousands of plaintiffs have filed suit in the MDL and this agreement would affectively resolve their claims. The cases were consolidated in October 2012.

The agreement stipulates that each plaintiff who received a Biomet M2a-38 or M2a-Magnum hip implant that later had to be revised will receive a base payment of $200,000, though the variations of each patient’s payment are numerous, dependent on an array of court-approved conditions.

The agreement may mirror the DePuy ASR settlement where deductions from base payments are incurred if the claimant smoked, had the device in for a certain amount of years, and is of a certain age. The base settlement can increase for multiple surgeries, complications from revisions, and other factors. The Biomet product was not recalled like the ASR, even though they are both metal-on-metal models.

Biomet’s settlement deal is in a sense bifurcated. The corporation will put $50 million into an escrow account to fund payments to plaintiffs who claim they were damaged by the hip implants. In the second prong, a common benefit settlement agreement, Biomet will pay $6 million to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The deadline to file a claim in order to be considered for participation in the settlement is April 15, 2014.

The MDL is In re: Biomet M2A Magnum Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, case number 3:12-md-02391, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.