Design Defect, Warning Claims to Proceed in Texas Federal Zimmer Trilogy Hip Action

MARSHALL, Texas — A Texas federal judge has allowed design defect and failure-to-warn claims to proceed against Zimmer in a Trilogy hip replacement action, finding questions of fact as to whether the manufacturer designed the device with a lower level of porosity than it had represented to the FDA.

On April 28, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also denied the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on a majority of Zimmer’s affirmative defenses, saying there are issues of fact concerning the learned intermediary doctrine, preemption and causation.

In March 2011, Martha Hardy …