A jury in Los Angeles has awarded a total of $8.3 million in damages to a Montana man who received a DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant in 2007. The jurors said manufacturer Johnson & Johnson was negligent but didn’t owe punitive damages to Loren “Bill” Kransky, a retired prison guard.
Johnson & Johnson recalled 93,000 DePuy implants in 2010, after finding that 12 percent of the devices failed within five years. Analysts say the lawsuits could cost J&J billions of dollars to resolve.
Kransky’s lawyers alleged that Johnson & Johnson failed to properly test the device, downplayed complaints of failures and considered a redesign of the device before halting the effort in 2008.