U.S.
District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued a brief minute order this week that she
will not disband the multidistrict litigation accusing Zimmer of
manufacturing shoddy knee implants before she can try another pair of
bellwethers in her court. Judge Pallmeyer expects two more bellwether trials in
the MDL before she will entertain a request to unwind the MDL and send around
300 remaining cases back to the courts where they were initially filed or where
jurisdiction is proper.
It
appears that the two bellwether trials will occur this year and that the remand
request will be revisited in 2018. The MDL at one point had over 1,800 cases filed
in it. The cases all involve variations of the Zimmer NexGen series of knee
implants. Zimmer opposed the unwinding of the MDL. Two bellwether cases have
previously been tried; both resulting in defense verdicts. One option going
forward is to try multiple plaintiffs’ cases at one time, similar to the
approach that was taken in the Pinnacle MDL.
Judge Pallmeyer
simultaneously weighed in on another dispute involving the production of
documents from a third-party medical consulting firm, ruling that Physicians
Medical Review must “produce all medical records that were furnished to
potentially declaring or testifying experts.” However, she ruled that
deposition notices issued to PMR’s principals would not be enforced.
