Appeal in dodgy hip case falters
A group of patients who received allegedly faulty hip joint replacements cannot find a way to successfully sue the international corporation that made the implants.
The Court of Appeal yesterday decided that the 41 New Zealand patients faced legal obstacles they could not overcome.
The court dismissed the patients’ appeal against two High Court judgments that put an end to their claims.
DePuy International made the joint replacements. The company was an English subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, an American corporation.
It was alleged ASR joint replacements made between 2006 and 2009 were faulty and could fail. In August 2010, a global recall of these products was announced.
DePuy paid for operations to replace the faulty implants. The patients alleged the way the implants degraded could cause metal poisoning and tissue damage. Operations to replace the joints carried all the risk, inconvenience, pain, and suffering of major surgery.
In the High Court, a judge ruled that accident compensation law barred a civil case from compensation, and it would be an abuse of process for 25 of the patients, who tried to join an English compensation bid, to also try to sue in New Zealand.
The patients appealed but the Court of Appeal decided the High Court judge had been right in both decisions.
The patients will have to pay an as yet unspecified amount towards the legal costs of DePuy.
The Accident Compensation Corporation, which was a party to one of the cases, did not seek costs from the patients.