CLEVELAND, Ohio – The U.S. district judge overseeing the first multidistrict litigation involving a DePuy Orthopaedics metal-on-metal hip implant has again postponed the trial. Judge David A. Katz, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, ordered a delay of McCracken v. DePuy on Sept. 20. This is the second delay in the case, filed by a 58-year-old New York woman who is claiming that a DePuy metal hip implant system was defectively designed and caused her to suffer severe injuries, according to the court file. The case was first set for Sept. 9 in Cleveland, then rescheduled to Sept. 24. “After conferring at length with the trial attorneys handling this matter, the court has determined that because of the initial continuance of this trial as aforesaid the scheduling of expert witnesses by both parties has become an extremely difficult task,” Katz wrote in his reschedule notice. “Additionally, issues remain with regard to scheduling of additional depositions and pretrial discovery which are necessary for the thorough preparation and presentation of this bellwether case. In the interests of justice, judicial economy and to protect the interests of the parties in this case, the adjourned trial date of September 24, 2013, is set aside and continued to the call of the court, trial to be set to commence within 90 days.” The first bellwether trial involves claims from Ann McCracken, of Rochester, N.Y., and has been designated as a bellwether from nearly 8,000 other federal lawsuits against DePuy and parent company Johnson & Johnson. According to the court file in her case, McCracken had a DePuy ASR device implanted in her body in August 2009 and is claiming multiple injuries and two revision hip surgeries.
