In Philadelphia Judge Michael Erdos has granted plaintiff Kimberly Adkins’ post-trial motion requesting a damages hearing in her lawsuit against Johnson &Johnson subsidiary Ethicon. This means that the only transvaginal mesh lawsuit won by Johnson & Johnson in the Philadelphia pelvic mesh mass tort has been reversed.
This plaintiff’s case had been the fifth to go to trial, after the first four trials had ruled against Ethicon and delivered damage awards to the plaintiffs. In this case the jury originally determined that that the pelvic mesh manufactured by Ethicon had not caused the damages claimed in Adkins’ lawsuit. However, Ten days after the verdict was handed down, Adkins came back with a one-page motion requesting a hearing to consider damages.
Plaintiff Kimberly Adkins alleged transvaginal mesh complications and her lawsuit was the fifth to go to trial in the Philadelphia mass tort. The previous four trials had ended with verdicts favoring the plaintiff. In Adkin’s case the jury determined that the pelvic mesh manufactured by Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, had not caused the damages claimed in the lawsuit. Her subsequent motion argued the jury’s determination that the product had been defectively designed, but not the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, went against the weight of the evidence. Judge Michael Erdos agreed and granted her motion for a damages hearing.
This reversal of the defense verdict is a stunning result. The first four trials ended in plaintiff awards worth millions of dollars each and I anticipate Adkin’s award will fall in the same range. After five consecutive multi-million dollar losses and with almost 55,000 lawsuits still pending in state and federal courts over vaginal-mesh devices produced by Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson has to begin thinking about potential settlement offers.
Endo International PLC recently reached a settlement to resolve its remaining 22,000 mesh lawsuits in the United States and agreed to set aside an additional $775 million along with the almost $2 billion already set aside for a settlement over the company’s dangerous and defective vaginal-mesh implants. Thousands more mesh lawsuits have also been filed of lawsuits against American Medical Systems, C.R. Bard, Boston Scientific, Coloplast Corp., Cook Medical, Inc., and Neomedic.
Make no mistake; this latest reversal in the Philadelphia pelvic mesh mass tort could be a game changer for Ethicon. The company gambled it could convince juries their mesh products were safe, despite thousands of reports of patients having painful and debilitating injuries. Women who had a vaginal mesh or bladder sling implanted to treat pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence were put at needless risk and suffered catastrophic complications from these medical devices. Johnson & Johnson has now lost five straight trials and millions of dollars over the Ethicon mesh devices. With that losing record are they willing to risk 55,000 more?
At Saunders & Walker, we continue to accept cases on behalf of patients harmed by these dangerous and defective surgical mesh products. If you or a loved has been injured by a vaginal mesh or bladder sling device or required surgery to remove the device, please contact us immediately for a free consultation.