A Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary wants a federal appeals court to hit the pause button in the multi-district litigation over its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant to give it enough time to appeal a $500 million jury verdict.
In March, a Texas federal jury slapped DePuy Orthopaedics with a $500 million judgment in favor of a quintet of plaintiffs who blamed the Pinnacle implant for their injuries. After 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, awarding $130 million in total compensatory damages and $360 million in punitive damages. DePuy won the 1st bellwether trial in the MDL, in October 2014.
