Jury Decides for Huskey $3.27 Million in Pelvic Mesh Trial!

After a two week trial, Huskey v. Ethicon, the eight member jury returned a verdict just before noon, Friday September 5, of $3.27 million.

Emotion erupted in the courtroom as the clerk read the breakdown!

Huskey had proven by the preponderance of the evidence, defective design, a failure to warn, strict liability and negligence in her lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and its division, Ethicon.

She was awarded:

$100, 000 – Reasonable medical costs

$470,000 – Past pain and suffering, mental anguish

$2.5 Million – pain, suffering, mental anguish, disability, loss enjoyment of life now and in the future.

$200,000 – Loss of consortium Mr. Huskey

$3.27 million

When asked if Ethicon planned to appeal both Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Jones had no comment.

The jury of eight - two men and 6 women were able to take notes during the proceedings. For the past two weeks they seemed to be attentive. One juror left last Friday for personal reasons.

The jury began deliberations Thursday night for two hours but failed to reach a decision.

This represents the second consecutive loss for Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson.

In April, a Dallas Jury awarded Linda Batiste $1.1 million over her TVT-O, the same medical device implanted in Mrs. Huskey. That jury also decided the polypropylene sling used to treat incontinence was defectively designed.

Last February, in this same federal court in Charleston WV, Judge Goodwin issued a directed verdict for the defendant in the case of Carolyn Lewis V. Ethicon.

The largest jury award for a plaintiff facing J&J was the Linda Gross trial heard in New Jersey court in February of last year. The jury awarded her $11.1 million including $7.76 million in punitive damages. Punitive damages were taken off the table by Judge Goodwin when he denied J&J's request for another directed verdict in the Huskey case.

Three other cases against the healthcare giant quietly settled in Missouri earlier this year in favor of the injured women.

There are presently more than 66,000 cases of similar pelvic mesh injuries against seven manufacturers consolidated in the Charleston court. Ethicon has the majority of those cases, 22,000, followed by American Medical Systems (19,000), Boston Scientific (14,000), C.R. Bard (10,000). Coloplast, Cook and Neomedic make up the remainder of the product liability cases.

The next pelvic mesh trials will be held in Miami November 3. Four plaintiffs will have their cases consolidated in trials against Boston Scientific, part of the multidistrict litigation in WV. Judge Goodwin will preside.