In a response filed on July 11, Zimmer Biomet expressed opposition to a motion filed by the plaintiffs to consolidate Zimmer hip lawsuits over the Versys, M/L Taper and M/L Taper with Kinectiv Technology stating creation of a formal MDL is unwarranted. The plaintiffs requested for Judge Donovan Frank to overlook the cases in Minnesota District Court.
The hip implant manufacturer stated in the response that, “Just 20 federal lawsuits properly within the scope of Plaintiffs’ proposed MDL have been identified for transfer and Plaintiffs provide no reason to suggest that the pace of filings will increase." Zimmer insists if the JPML does decide to consolidate the hip component lawsuits, it should be overlooked by Judge Sarah Evans Barker in the Southern District of Indiana.
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 Durom Hip Cup 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).
