DePuy Hip Implant Negligence Claim Can’t Avoid Preemption, Judge Rules

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania judge has agreed to dismiss a DePuy Orthopaedics hip implant suit after determining that the plaintiff failed to provide sufficient proof of a parallel state law negligence claim against the manufacturer that that would have allowed the case to survive a preemption challenge.

Judge Kim R. Gibson of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania said Sept. 30 that the allegations in Barbara McPhee’s second amended complaint were merely “incantations” that DePuy violated FDA regulations and did not rise to the level of plausible parallel negligence claims.

McPhee sued DePuy after the …