Texas Judge delays J&J Pinnacle hip implant bellwether trial

A federal judge in Dallas has delayed a Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics Pinnacle hip implant bellwether trial until later this month, according to a Texas Lawyer report.

The delay came after 2 of 3 judges on a Fifth Circuit Court panel refused a petition to halt the trail, but concluded that the judge had committed a “grave error” in allowing certain trials to come before him, according to the report.

The trial is the 4th bellwether in a multidistrict litigation over the allegedly defective Pinnacle hip systems.

The ruling could impact a separate case in the Fifth Circuit, according to the report, with Johnson & Johnson presenting the same venue arguments as it appeals a $1 billion verdict in its most recent Pinnacle trial.

In February, J&J’s DePuy said it was seeking a new trial after it lost a $1 billion judgment to 6 plaintiffs who sued over its metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant.

A Dallas jury last December found that the metal-on-metal pinnacle hip implants were designed defectively and that the companies failed to appropriately warn patients of the risks associated with the devices, awarding $32 million in compensatory damages and more than $1 billion in punitive damages to the 6 co-plaintiffs. But Judge Ed Kinkeade of the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas, as he did with a similar, $500 million verdict in a previous Pinnacle lawsuit, again slashed the verdict nearly in half.

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