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 The test case had high stakes for the pharmaceutical giant, which is
hoping to avoid a replay of a $2.5 billion settlement it agreed to
last year for a different metal-on-metal hip device.
The Dallas federal jury ruled unanimously against the plaintiff
Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, who said the two metal-on-metal Pinnacle
hips she received in 2009 were faulty and that the company failed to
warn patients and doctors about the device's risks.
DePuy had said the implants were improperly positioned, and not to
blame for her injuries. Jurors needed about two days to deliberate,
after a seven-week trial.
Plaintiffs' lawyers selected Herlihy-Paoli's lawsuit to be among the
first to go to trial out of more than 6,600 lawsuits over the
Pinnacle hips. The unanimous win for DePuy is expected to affect its
approach to the rest of the lawsuits, which are consolidated before
U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade.
DePuy spokeswoman Mindy Tinsley said the company was pleased with
the verdict and was committed to the "long-term and vigorous
defense" of the litigation.
The metal-on-metal device "was appropriately developed, thoroughly
tested and responsibly marketed," she said in a statement.
A lawyer for Herlihy-Paoli, Mark Lanier, called the case "the first
skirmish in what is likely to be a long war."
"We still plan to press on with fierce dedication to clients we
believe have been tragically wronged," he said.
Herlihy-Paoli said she required multiple surgeries to fix and
replace her implants after the surrounding tissue became infected
and the level of the metal cobalt in her blood soared to 85 times
the normal level.
Her 2012 lawsuit said the device’s metal components rubbed together,
shedding metal ions.
At trial, lawyers for Herlihy-Paoli accused DePuy of aggressively
marketing the devices to more active people, while concealing
abnormally high failure rates.
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DePuy’s lawyers countered that the devices were safe when used and
implanted properly. They also said Herlihy-Paoli unfairly targeted
DePuy for problems linked to different metal-on-metal hips, such as
the company’s ASR devices.
Last year, DePuy agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle more than
7,000 lawsuits over the ASR devices, which it recalled in 2010.
DePuy stopped selling the metal-on-metal Pinnacle devices in 2013.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, called the
verdict surprising and said jurors may have responded to DePuy’s
argument that the hips may have been improperly positioned.
“They can take some comfort in this verdict,” he said, referring to
DePuy. “But I’m sure there will be more."
The case is Herlihy-Paoli v. Pinnacle, U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of Texas, No. 12-4975.
(Reporting by Jessica Dye in New York and Lisa Maria Garza in
Dallas; Editing by Chris Reese, Bernard Orr and David Ingram)
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