Dallas Federal Jury Awards More Than $1 Billion Over DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implants
Won by Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers.
Khaldoun Baghdadi was on the plaintiffs' trial team that won a federal jury verdict topping $1 billion for six California patients harmed by DePuy's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, an award the trial judge later cut to about $543 million.
What happened
DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson & Johnson company, sold the Pinnacle Ultamet hip implant as a durable choice for active patients. The device paired a metal ball with a metal cup. As the two surfaces ground against each other, they shed microscopic metal particles into the surrounding tissue and the bloodstream. In some patients, that debris led to tissue death, bone erosion, and high levels of metal in the blood.
Six California residents who received the metal-on-metal Pinnacle sued after their implants failed. They described pain, loosening hardware, and revision surgery to remove and replace the device. Their claims were consolidated for trial in the federal multidistrict litigation assigned to Judge Ed Kinkeade in Dallas.
The plaintiffs' trial team included Khaldoun Baghdadi of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger, working alongside lead counsel Mark Lanier and other lawyers appointed to the litigation. Over roughly eight weeks, they argued that the company knew the implant carried serious risks, failed to warn doctors and patients, and kept promoting it over designs the plaintiffs called safer. The case was tried under California law.
The jury heard evidence that Johnson & Johnson and DePuy were aware of the product's dangers, did not disclose those risks, and continued to market the metal-on-metal design heavily. Jurors found the defendants liable on claims that included design defect, failure to warn, and fraudulent concealment.
On December 1, 2016, the jury returned its verdict for all six plaintiffs. The award came to more than $1 billion in punitive damages plus about $32 million in compensatory damages, among the largest figures ever entered in metal-on-metal hip litigation.
The number did not hold at that level. After the verdict, the trial judge reduced the punitive portion, bringing the total to roughly $543 million. Johnson & Johnson appealed. In an earlier Pinnacle case, where five Texas plaintiffs won about $500 million, the Fifth Circuit ordered a new trial after finding the trial court admitted prejudicial evidence and that plaintiffs' lead lawyer had misstated whether expert witnesses were paid.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.