A Texas federal judge has denied Johnson & Johnson and DePuy’s request to stay upcoming Pinnacle metal hip implant lawsuits pending the company’s appeal of a recent $498 million verdict.

Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics had motioned to pause all bellwether lawsuits pending before U.S. District Court Judge Ed Kinkeade.

The motion was made in order to wait out an appellate ruling from the Fifth Circuit over the unprecedented verdict that they contend will impact future metal hip implant lawsuits.

“We moved to stay further trials in the MDL proceeding until the numerous issues raised by the previous trial are resolved by the federal appellate court,” counsel for J&J stated. “We are concerned that the court’s decision to move ahead with further trials without appellate review of those issues will undermine the efficiency and fairness of the MDL proceeding.”

However, Judge Kinkeade refused to grant J&J’s motion to pause the multidistrict litigation pending in Texas federal court pending the appeal to the Fifth Circuit and instead moved forward in selecting seven bellwether hip replacement lawsuit cases.

Metal Hip Implant Litigation

This is not the first attempt by Johnson & Johnson and DePuy to remove metal hip implant lawsuits against them.

In May, the metal hip implant maker filed a motion arguing that crucial evidence from the second bellwether hip replacement lawsuit was prejudicial because it consolidated complaints of five plaintiffs.

That evidence included “references to Saddam Hussein’s ‘henchmen,’ unsupported speculation that plaintiffs might develop cancer as a result of their Pinnacle implants,” and also includes attorneys and expert witnesses who have no authority to testify on hip replacement problems.

In March, a Texas jury awarded the quintet of plaintiffs in the second hip replacement lawsuit bellwether who said the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant caused their injuries, a whopping $498 million verdict.

Following a 2-month trial, jurors found that the Ultamet metal-on-metal version of the Pinnacle hips were defectively designed and that DePuy failed to warn patients about the risks.

Jurors awarded about $130 million in total compensatory damages and about $360 million in punitive damages.

The first bellwether trial in the Pinnacle multidistrict litigation went J&J’s way in October 2014, when the jury acquitted DePuy unanimously on all counts.

Metal hip implant lawsuits were consolidated into multidistrict litigation in May 2011.  Now, there are over 8,000 lawsuits all similarly alleging hip replacement problems involving Pinnacle devices.

Specifically, these lawsuits claim that the metal-on-metal design of the Pinnacle hip implant leads to metallosis, bone erosion, and tissue inflammation, often causing plaintiffs to undergo subsequent hip revision surgeries that are even more risky than an initial hip replacement surgery.

The seven metal hip implant lawsuits selected for upcoming bellwether trials are Case Nos. 3:15-cv-03484, 3:15-cv-01767, 3:13-cv-03804, 3:12-cv-02066, 3:13-cv-3938, 3:14-cv-01730 and 3:13-cv-03631, all filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The Pinnacle Metal Hip Implant MDL is In re: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2244 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.