Biomet Files Motion To Reverse A $21M November Verdict

Biomet Files Motion To Reverse A $21M November Verdict

Introduction

Last Friday, Biomet Inc. filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, asking a federal judge to overturn the $21 million verdict awarded to a woman and her husband last month over claims alleging that the company’s metal-on-metal M2a Magnum hip implant system was defectively designed.

The defendant, in the motion, noted that the plaintiffs' win could not be sustained as the jury's decision in the company's favor on the strict liability design defect claim "necessarily disposed" of the negligent design claim that was in favor of the plaintiffs. The defendant argued that the court should reverse the verdict as the elements, design defect, and causation on which the jury based its rejection was common in both the claims.

The company also mentioned another Missouri case involving Auto Handling Corp. in which the court had recognized that claims of strict liability and negligent failure to warn were "inextricably bound together" and had required reversal and retrial of the jury verdict on both the claims.

According to the lawsuit filed by the couple, the woman got both her hips replaced in early 2008 with Biomet's M2a-Magnum hip implant. She started experiencing problems in 2010 and went for revision surgery in March 2011 in her left hip.

The jury awarded a compensatory damages verdict to the plaintiffs on October 22, and after a break, the punitive damages phase concluded on November 18. The jury awarded $20 million to the woman and $1 million to her husband along with post-judgment interest and costs of the action and refused to impose punitive damages against the company.

In the same month, the company also lost in a case considered "virtually identical" to this trial. The case involved an Iowa woman who was awarded a $3.55 million verdict for a similar claim alleging the company's hip implant.

Zimmer Holdings is an Indiana-based orthopedics company involved in providing hip and knee solutions including joint and skeletal replacement systems and surgical tools as well as biologics designed to assist in joint replacement surgeries. In April 2014, Zimmer and Biomet announced to come together to provide joint replacement, bone repair, and dental implant solutions. In June 2015, they started out as Zimmer Biomet and began offering solutions to the musculoskeletal healthcare industry. The hip and knee implants were intended to relieve pain, provide good quality of life to the patients. However, Zimmer lawsuits filed by several individuals claimed the metal-on-metal articulation used in the system resulted in Metallosis, because of the metal grounding on metal as it leads to toxic metal shards being released into the patient's surrounding tissues and bone.

In August 2018, Zimmer Biomet revealed it received a warning letter from the FDA over quality violations at a plant in its home base of Warsaw, Ind. during an inspection done in 2016. The violation was documented in Form 483.