A federal judge delayed the 1st bellwether trial in the multi-district litigation over the DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant, originally slated to begin this week.
Judge David Katz of the U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio, who is overseeing the DePuy ASR MDL, pushed Ann McCracken v. DePuy Orthopaedics back to Sept. 24, according to court documents.
Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE:JNJ) DePuy Orthopaedics division pulled the DePuy ASR device from the market in 2010, prompting thousands of personal injury lawsuits across the country.
"The court, after conferring with the parties, has determined that because of the delayed designation of this case for trial, which occurred in July 2013, additional discovery and the consideration of additional legal matters requires this court to continue this trial for 2 weeks," Katz wrote.
The 1st trial over the DePuy ASR implant settled in August 2012 before it could go to trial. In March, a jury awarded another plaintiff, Loren Kransky, $8.3 million after deciding that the device was defectively designed (California Judge J. Stephen Czuleger rejected DePuy’s request for a new trial in May). In April, an Illinois state jury found for DePuy in Carol Strum vs. DePuy Orthopaedics & Premier Orthopaedic Sales.
Plaintiffs in 7 lawsuits filed over the device can add claims over the DePuy Pinnacle implant, a state judge in California ruled last month.
The August 2010 recall of the DePuy ASR devices was "due to the number of patients who required a second hip replacement procedure," according to a company report. An internal review in 2011 found that 37% of DePuy’s ASR hip implants would require revision or replacement in less than 4.6 years.
In July, Katz ruled on a number of pre-trial motions from both sides, granting DePuy’s bid to keep evidence about the recall out of the trial.
