Court Remands Pinnacle Case, Finding Schmalzried Wasn't Fraudulently Joined

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge in California has rejected defense assertions that physician-designer Thomas Schmalzried, M.D., was fraudulently joined to defeat diversity and has remanded a DePuy Pinnacle case to state court. Shelton v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., No. CV 11-08082 DDP (C.D. Calif.).

The order by Judge Dean D. Pregerson was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Dec. 1.

Plaintiff Catherine Shelton originally filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Aug. 11, claiming that a DePuy Pinnacle Hip System implanted in her leg was defective.

Shelton is a California resident. …