J&J secures dismissal of whistleblower case over misuse of confidential information By Reuters

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A federal appeals courtroom, in a call unsealed Wednesday, upheld the dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit towards Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) as a sanction for the plaintiffs’ misuse of confidential information they obtained by associated litigation.

The lawsuit, which accused J&J’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit of defrauding the federal authorities by advertising and marketing faulty hip implants, was dismissed in December 2021.

J&J has denied wrongdoing.

U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Web page Kelley in Boston discovered on the time that the plaintiffs, two British orthopedic surgeons who served as knowledgeable witnesses in mass tort litigation over the hip implants, violated courtroom orders through the use of materials from that litigation of their whistleblower lawsuit.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the first U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals dominated that Kelley’s determination was justified in gentle of proof that the plaintiffs, Antoni Nargol and David Langton, wrongly used the confidential data and tried to cowl their tracks. The data was shielded by a protecting order within the mass tort litigation meant to forestall disclosure of J&J’s commerce secrets and techniques.

“We accordingly discover that the district courtroom didn’t abuse its discretion to find that (plaintiffs) had, as soon as once more, violated the protecting orders and in imposing the weighty sanction of dismissal with prejudice,” Circuit Choose Lara Montecalvo wrote for the panel. Montecalvo was joined by Chief Choose David Barron and Circuit Choose Kermit Lipez.

Ross Brooks, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, mentioned his purchasers have been disenchanted by the ruling and that “the report plainly exhibits that Drs. Nargol and Langton provided to show their good religion compliance with the related courtroom orders.”

J&J didn’t instantly have a remark.

J&J’s DePuy Orthopaedics Inc unit stopped promoting its metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant units in 2013 after the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration strengthened its laws on synthetic hips.

The units turned the topic of greater than 10,000 product legal responsibility lawsuits consolidated earlier than a federal decide in Texas. After being hit with a number of antagonistic jury verdicts, J&J agreed to settle 1000’s of circumstances in 2019 for about $1 billion, although some are nonetheless pending.

Nargol and Langton have been serving as knowledgeable witnesses for the plaintiffs in that litigation once they sued DePuy beneath the federal False Claims Act in 2012. They claimed the corporate marketed the faulty hip implant units to unsuspecting docs, who have been then reimbursed by authorities medical health insurance applications.

The case is United States ex rel Nargol et al v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc et al, 1st U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals, No. 22-1047.

For plaintiffs: Ross Brooks of Brooks and Ross Morrison of Yankwitt

For J&J: Adam Tarosky of Nixon Peabody

Learn extra:

J&J hip implant whistleblower case tossed over confidential information misuse

Supply hyperlink

from NYSE Updates – My Blog https://ift.tt/u5GKDX6
via IFTTT