Walkup Wins $8.3 Million for Loren Kransky in First DePuy ASR Hip Trial

In August 2010, DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson & Johnson unit, recalled its ASR XL metal-on-metal hip implant after data showed it was failing in large numbers of patients. As the implants wore, they shed cobalt and chromium particles into the surrounding tissue and the bloodstream. By 2013, more than 10,000 ASR lawsuits were pending across the country. The first one to reach a jury belonged to Loren Kransky.

Kransky, a retired Montana prison guard, received an ASR hip in December 2007. The metal surfaces ground against each other and released debris that poisoned the tissue around the joint. He developed hip pain, trouble walking, and elevated metal ion levels in his blood, and surgeons removed the failed implant in February 2012. Kransky was 65 and also had terminal cancer, which is why the court moved his case to the front of the line.

The trial took place in Los Angeles County Superior Court and ran for about five weeks. Michael Kelly, Matthew Davis, and Khaldoun Baghdadi of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger tried the case with co-counsel from Panish Shea. They argued that the ASR was defectively designed: its metal ball and cup ground out wear particles at rates the company's own records had flagged, and that the debris, not the surgery, caused Kransky's harm.

After deliberating for five days, the jury returned its verdict on March 8, 2013. It found that the design of the ASR was defective and that the defect caused Kransky's injuries, awarding about $8.3 million in compensatory damages: roughly $338,000 for medical expenses and $8 million for past and future pain and suffering. The panel did not give the plaintiffs everything. It sided with DePuy on the failure-to-warn claim and found no malice, so Kransky received no punitive damages.

The trial judge let the verdict stand. DePuy appealed, arguing that the court had wrongly excluded evidence of the FDA's clearance of the device, that the verdict was internally inconsistent, and that the damages were too high. On July 21, 2016, the California Court of Appeal rejected each argument and affirmed the judgment in full, writing that the award did not shock its conscience. Loren Kransky died while the appeal was pending. By the time it was decided, the affirmed judgment had been accruing interest since 2013, an amount that by then topped $2.75 million.