First Federal Pelvic Mesh Bellwether: $3.27 Million Verdict for Jo Huskey Against Ethicon

By 2014, more than 33,000 women had filed suit against Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, over its transvaginal mesh products. Federal courts consolidated those claims into a multidistrict litigation before Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia. Jo Huskey's case was selected as a bellwether to test how juries would react to the evidence.

Huskey had been implanted with Ethicon's TVT-O mid-urethral sling, a polypropylene mesh device marketed to treat stress urinary incontinence. Over time the mesh degraded and eroded through her tissue, causing severe pelvic pain, scarring, and lasting pelvic floor damage. She and her husband Allen brought claims for design defect and failure to warn under both strict liability and negligence theories.

At trial, the plaintiffs' legal team, which included Jeffrey Kuntz of Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP alongside co-counsel from Wexler Wallace LLP and Motley Rice LLC, put forward evidence that Ethicon knew of the mesh's degradation risks and had not adequately disclosed them to physicians or patients. The defense argued the device was safe and that any complications fell within known and accepted risks.

The trial began on August 22, 2014 and ran nine days. The jury sided with Huskey in early September 2014, awarding $3.07 million to Jo Huskey and $200,000 to Allen Huskey for loss of consortium, for a combined verdict of $3.27 million. Judge Goodwin denied Ethicon's post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law in August 2015, ruling that a reasonable jury could find for Huskey on the evidence presented.

Ethicon appealed to the Fourth Circuit, which affirmed the verdict on January 26, 2017. The appellate court rejected Ethicon's arguments that the district court should have granted judgment in its favor or ordered a new trial. The award was not reduced on appeal. The outcome established an early benchmark for how federal courts would evaluate pelvic mesh liability claims as the MDL continued.