The plaintiffs involved in lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson over problems with the Ethicon Prolene Hernia System (PHS) have filed a request in New Jersey state court to consolidate and centralize all hernia mesh lawsuits.
The request for the creation of a Multicounty Litigation (MCL) was submitted on September 6, also indicating that 107 Ethicon Prolene hernia mesh implants lawsuits are currently pending in Middlesex County Superior Court. A consolidation request was submitted twice in August 2018 and May 2019, both of which were denied.
The new request proposes to centralize the lawsuits before a single judge in Atlantic County Superior Court, where multicounty litigations involving Ethicon’s Physiomesh and Proceed hernia mesh implants are already underway.
There are currently about 2,300 Ethicon Physiomesh product liability lawsuits pending in the federal court system consolidated under MDL No. 2782, presided by U.S. District Judge Richard Story.
Earlier, Judge Peter G. Sheridan of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey declined to dismiss product liability and personal injury claims involving Ethicon Inc.'s hernia mesh. In 2011, a plaintiff from Texas received a mesh implant to repair his inguinal hernia. He experienced chronic abdominal pain and multiple infections that urged him to get the implant removed in 2017. He filed a lawsuit in December 2018 against Ethicon in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey for negligence, strict product liability, breach of express and implied warranties, and violation of consumer protection laws.
