On March 8, 2013 a Los Angeles jury awarded $8.3 million in compensatory damages to the Plaintiff, Loren “Bill” Kransky, in the four week jury trial against Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy subsidiary. The jury concluded that DePuy was liable for the design defects in its DePuy ASR XL product and the damages it caused to Mr. Kransky. The jury announced its verdict after six days of deliberation.
Over 93,000 of the DePuy ASR XL hip implants were recalled in August of 2010 due to an extremely high failure rate. Over 10,000 lawsuits are pending in the U.S. against Johnson & Johnson and DePuy for injuries sustained as a result of this hip implant failure.
The jury in Kransky’s case declined to assess punitive damages against the hip manufacturer. Instead, the verdict consists of $338,136 in medical expenses and $8 million for the non-economic damages, such as pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, and physical disfigurement. However, according to Bloomberg Media, one juror felt that DePuy should have also been punished for knowing about the problem and continuing to recommend the product to doctors and patients.
Lorie Gawreluk, a spokesperson for DePuy, stated following the verdict that the company will likely appeal and will ask that the verdict be thrown out. Despite the strong evidence to the contrary, she also maintains that the “ASR XL was properly designed and that DePuy’s actions concerning the product were appropriate and reasonable.” The jury, however, disagreed.
The implications that this verdict will have on the remaining cases are not yet known. Several other trials involving the DePuy ASR are set to begin later in 2013. Kransky’s lawyer, Brian Panish, said after the verdict, “We’ve learned a lot from this trial…we’ll get punitive damages in the next trial.”
If you or someone you know have been injured by a defective metal-on-metal hip implant, contact the attorneys at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or 713-222-7211.