J&J Ordered to Pay Record $1 Billion for Faulty Hip Implants
- Texas verdict continues courtroom losing stretch for company
- J&J faces almost 9,000 lawsuits over its metal-on-metal hips
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Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Texas jury to pay more than $1 billion to patients who claimed the company hid flaws in its Pinnacle artificial hips that had to be surgically removed, in J&J’s second loss linked to the implants.
Officials of J&J’s DePuy unit, which makes the Pinnacle hips, knew the devices were defective, but failed to properly warn doctors and patients about the risk they would fail, the federal jury in Dallas concluded Thursday. The verdict includes more than $30 million in actual damages for the six plaintiffs and more than $1 billion in punitive damages, according to court filings.