First Trial Over Hip Replacement Device Results in $8.3 Million Jury Verdict, but no Punitive Damages

2013

More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed over the ASR XL ball-and-socket hip implant manufactured by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., and Plaintiff Loren Kransky’s case was the first trial in the mass litigation (Case No. BC456086, Los Angeles County Superior Court).  Kransky, a retired prison guard, claimed that the metal-on-metal device left residue in his hip socket, afflicting him with potentially lethal metal poisoning.

After a week of deliberations, the jury found that the ASR XL hip implant was defectively designed and awarded $8,338,000 in compensatory damages.  However, the jury did not award any punitive damages—which had been estimated at as much as $179 million—and the jury also rejected Kransky’s claim that DePuy failed to adequately warn of the risks associated with its product.  Although Kransky’s trial is instructive, what is perceived to be the first bellwether case will be tried in Ohio in May.