A group of law firms leading the Stryker LFIT Cobalt Chromium V40 Femoral Heads litigation have announced a confidential, private settlement of many cases involving the recalled hip component used in hip replacement surgeries. The devices, manufactured by Howmedica Osteonics Corp., were subject to two separate recalls after patients complained of pain, difficulty walking, disassociation of the femoral head, and tissue and muscle damage from corrosion products of the cobalt and chromium femoral head requiring revision surgery.
The Settlement was announced today in court before the Multi-District Litigation Judge Indira Talwani in Boston. Contemporaneously, an order was issued by the Honorable Judge Rachelle Harz of the New Jersey Superior Court implementing procedures to aid the settlement.
Numerous individual lawsuits were centralized in two jurisdictions. All federally filed Stryker LFIT V40 lawsuits were venued in the District of Massachusetts as a Multi-District Litigation (MDL) in April of 2017. Lawsuits filed in state court, New Jersey, were also consolidated as a Multi-County Litigation (MCL) in New Jersey’s Superior Court in Bergen County on May 16, 2017. Lawsuits from both jurisdictions are included in the confidential private settlement.
The attorneys in the leadership of these coordinated litigations who negotiated this settlement are Peter J. Flowers of Meyers & Flowers, Brenda S. Fulmer and C. Calvin Warriner, III of Searcy Denney Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley, Walter Kelly of Bernheim Dolinsky Kelley, Michael L. McGlamry and M.J. Blakely of Pope McGlamry Kilpatrick Morrison & Norwood, Joseph Osborne of Osborne & Francis, Ashleigh Raso of Meshbesher & Spence, and Ellen Relkin of Weitz & Luxenberg. Negotiating Counsel for Stryker were Kim Catullo and Nora Wolf of Gibbons, P.C.
The Plaintiffs’ negotiating team jointly comment that “we are pleased we were able to bring a speedy resolution for our clients and are happy they will receive compensation for both the pain these devices caused and the surgeries they had to endure to attempt to undo the damage caused by these faulty implants.”
