Calif. Federal Judge Remands Pinnacle Hip Case, Finds Distributors Not Fraudulently Joined

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge has remanded an action targeting DePuy’s Pinnacle Hip System, ruling the defendants failed to meet their “heavy burden” of establishing that the in-state distributor defendants were fraudulently joined.

On July 13, Judge Haywood Gilliam of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found the claims against the distributors are not preempted because they were not barred by federal law from repackaging or relabeling the device, which had been approved under Section 510(k) of the Medical Device Act.

William Bradley alleges that in December 2008, he was implanted with a Pinnacle …