A unit of Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay around $40 million in legal costs to the lead applicants in a class action over pelvic mesh implants after a judge dismissed the company’s bid to stay the costs until after a high profile appeal is heard next year.
The Insurance Council of Australia has asked the High Court to weigh in on its case against COVID-19 related claims in business interruption policies, following its high stakes loss in a ruling last month that found an infectious disease exclusion did not apply.
A judge has approved an application to join the insurer of a former doctor into a class action seeking compensation for defective pelvic mesh implants and wants to fast-track the matter for trial next year.
Insurers will face a flood of pandemic-related claims after an appeals court ruled in a test case brought by the Insurance Council that certain infectious disease exclusions in business interruption cover do not apply to coronavirus-related claims.
A judge due to hear a high profile appeal by Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon has expressed confusion about the grounds on which the medical device maker is challenging a landmark judgment putting it on the hook for potentially hundreds of million of dollars in damages over faulty pelvic mesh implants.
Medical device maker Covidien has lost a bid to have the applicant in a product liability class action over allegedly defective pelvic mesh front $300,000 as security for its legal costs in the event it wins the case.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission spent over $1.8 million in taxpayer funds investigating and prosecuting its now failed responsible lending case against Westpac.
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon has been hit with an indemnity costs order for “unreasonable conduct” after its loss in last year’s pelvic mesh class action ruling, which found that the pharmaceutical giant did not adequately warn of the risks of the implants.
Medical device giant Johnson & Johnson has confirmed it will not seek the recusal of a Federal Court judge from a panel overseeing its pelvic mesh class action appeal, despite earlier raising concerns that he had seen privileged settlement communications.
A judge has found that the law firm behind a plethora of pelvic mesh lawsuits filed in multiple courts should be personally hit with costs for its “keystone cop-like conduct” in handling the proceedings, but has given the firm a week to convince him otherwise.