Another DePuy ASR Metal on Metal Hip Lawsuit Settles Quietly

According to court records, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy, has settled another DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuit. The lawsuit, MacDonald et al v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. et al, filed in the Bergen County division of the New Jersey Superior Court, is set to be dismissed once the court receives formal notice from both sides.

Judge Brian Martinotti, who is overseeing the New Jersey litigation, annouced that the case “has been resolved.”  wrote. “All pending motions are withdrawn, the complaint will be dismissed with prejudice upon receipt of a fully executed stipulation signed by all counsel,” Martinotti wrote.

DePuy ASR Hip Recall

Johnson & Johnson pulled the DePuy ASR device from the market in 2010, after multiple complaints from patients and doctors, who claimed that these metal on metal hips had a high failure rate. In 2010 Johnson & Johnson recalled 93,000 metal-on-metal hip implants worldwide, about 33,000 of those in the United States.

DePuy Hip Metallosis

The metal on metal components in the DePuy ASR hip, tend to grind against each other, causing metal poisoning, or “metallosis.”  Heavy metal debris consisting of cobalt and chromium, gets absorbed locally into the hip joint and into the patient’s bloodstream, leading to neurological problems and destruction of the hip joint.

Global DePuy ASR Settlement on the Horizon

According to sources,  DePuy is said to be considering the settling of ASR lawsuits for about $3 billion, which would average out to about $300,000 per case. According previous reports, plaintiffs ealier rejected an offer that averaged about $200,000 per case because it did not provide sufficient compensation for injuries caused by the recalled hip implant.

Nearly 12,000 DePuy ASR lawsuits are pending in state and federal courts involving allegations that design defects with the metal-on-metal hip replacement increased the risk that users would experience problems with their artificial hip within a few years after it is implanted.

DePuy ASR Settlement Negotiations and Early Trials

In September, Judge Katz, who is overseeing the federal DePuy ASR litigation, delayed for a 2nd time the 1st bellwether trial in the multidistrict litigation over the DePuy ASR implant.

The 1st trial over the DePuy ASR implant settled in August 2012 before it went to trial. In March, a California jury awarded another plaintiff, Loren Kransky, $8.3 million after deciding that the device was defectively designed.

In April, an Illinois state jury found for DePuy in Carol Strum vs. DePuy Orthopaedics & Premier Orthopaedic Sales.