Plaintiffs, Griseth DeJesus, Chanton Harris and Rita Taranto sued in Florida State Court asserting that they were injured by hip implant manufactured by Biomet Inc. and Biomet Orthopedics LLC.  According to the complaints, “the Distributor acted as Biomet’s local representatives with regards to the implant in question, selling, marketing, and distributing the implant in question, selling, marketing, and distributing the implants for profit.”

Defendants removed the cases to federal court asserting that the distributor defendants were fraudulently joined and these lawsuits were transferred to the Biomet Hip Multidistrict Litigation(“MDL”).  Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Remand the cases back to the Florida State Court because the distributors could be held strictly liable for injuries caused by defective product under Florida law.

The MDL Court set forth, “Contrary to Biomet’s argument, the plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient element of control to state a colorable claim against the Distributors under Florida law.” “All three plaintiffs allege unequivocally that the Distributor placed the implants in the stream of commerce by arranging their sale to hospitals and doctors.”

The MDL Court noted, “Strengthening this conclusion, Florida district courts have consistently held that medical device distributors can be strictly liable for product defects and have granted remand motions over defendants’ fraudulent joinder objections.”

The MDL Judge remanded the cases back to Florida State Court.