A jury in Philadelphia this week reportedly docked Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary Ethicon $13.5 million in the 2nd case involving its pelvic mesh products to go to trial in a mass tort in The City of Brotherly Love.
The jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas awarded plaintiff Sharon Carlino $3.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages, finding that the Ethicon transvaginal polypropylene tape implanted during a 2005 hysterectomy was defective and that the company failed to adequately warn of its risks, The Legal Intelligencer reported. Carlino eventually needed 3 revision surgeries to remove the eroded mesh.
In December 2015, a jury in the same court added $7 million in punitive damages to the $5.5 million in compensatory damages it leveled against Ethicon in the 1st of the mass tort cases to go to trial in Philly.
Carlino’s attorney, Shanin Specter, said the family is thankful for the verdict.
“We hope Johnson & Johnson undertakes a bottom-up review of their conduct in vaginal mesh,” Specter said, according to the newspaper.
“We have strong grounds for appeal,” Ethicon spokeswoman Samantha Lucas said in prepared remarks, the paper reported. “We believe the evidence showed Ethicon’s TVT midurethral sling was properly designed and labeled, Ethicon acted appropriately and responsibly in the research, development and marketing of the product, and TVT was not the cause of the plaintiff’s continuing medical problems.”
