MDL Request Motion Filed For Zimmer Lawsuits Over M/L Taper

MDL Request Motion Filed For Zimmer Lawsuits Over M/L Taper

Introduction

Several plaintiffs filed a transfer motion on June 19 with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) indicating a multidistrict litigation (MDL) be formed for Zimmer M/L Taper with Kinectiv Technology and VerSys Femoral Head used for hip replacement surgeries. The group of plaintiffs requested that the cases filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide should be assigned to Judge Donovan W. Frank in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota for coordinated pretrial proceedings. Oral arguments concerning the motion would be heard on September 27, 2018, in San Francisco, California, JPML indicated.

The centralization would help reduce duplicate discovery, avoid conflicting pretrial schedules, and would be convenient for the parties, witnesses, and the judicial system. Zimmer lawsuits filed across the nation claim that the Zimmer M/L Taper Hip Prosthesis and Zimmer VerSys Hip femoral head are defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous when paired together, with a tendency to corrode and leave metal pieces that perforate into the tissue and blood resulting in the implants failing and needing to be removed. Zimmer Hip Replacement lawsuits were centralized on June 9, 2010, in the U.S District of New Jersey before Judge Susan D. Wigenton as a multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2158 (In Re: Zimmer Durom Hip Cup Products Liability Litigation).