Jury Hands Down Another Multi-Million Dollar Victory for Pelvic Mesh Injury Victims

Earlier this month, a jury sitting in a federal courtroom in West Virginia deliberated for less than a day after a two-week trial before coming back with a $3.27 million verdict for the plaintiff in a product liability case who was injured by the transvaginal pelvic mesh implanted into her body to treat stress urinary incontinence. The case is Huskey v. Ethicon, and it is one of more than 66,000 pelvic mesh cases consolidated and transferred to the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

The cases are being coordinated in West Virginia as part of what is known as Multidistrict Litigation, or MDL. The court is currently in the process of conducting a few “bellwether trials,” and the outcomes of those trials may help inform the parties in the other 66,000 cases about how a jury will likely rule in their case. This may help lead the parties to settle rather than litigate every case individually. Of the seven pelvic mesh manufacturers currently being sued, one medical device maker – Endo International (American Medical Systems) – recently agreed to settle all of the approximately 20,000 lawsuits against it for $830 million.

Major verdict in New Jersey, thousands more await

This recent verdict is neither the only nor the largest verdict to come down against Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, for distributing a defective pelvic mesh medical device and failing to warn of adverse side effects such as pain, bleeding and infection. In February 2013, a jury in New Jersey Superior Court awarded $11.1 million to an unfortunate mesh recipient. This award reflected $3.35 million in compensatory damages (medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering) and $7.76 million in punitive damages, designed to punish Ethicon for its malfeasance.

In June of this year, a New Jersey judge upheld the verdict by denying Johnson & Johnson’s motions for a new trial and denying their request to reduce the punitive damage award. The plaintiff in this case, Gross v. Johnson & Johnson, underwent one surgery to implant the Gynecare Prolift Pelvic Mesh Kit, and then later underwent 18 explant surgeries to try to undo the damage caused by the defective medical device.

Nearly 6,000 cases are ongoing in New Jersey courts against Ethicon, and another 1,500 have been filed against another manufacturer, C.R. Bard, maker of the Avaulta family of mesh support devices.