Faegre Drinker Secures Expert Exclusion and Summary Judgment for Zimmer Biomet in Hip Implant MDL Case

A team of Faegre Drinker product liability and mass torts attorneys represented Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. in securing summary judgment in one of the remaining cases pending in the Zimmer M/L Taper Hip Prosthesis multidistrict litigation (MDL). On July 22, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Zimmer Biomet’s Rule 702 motion to exclude the plaintiff’s defect and causation expert and granted Zimmer Biomet’s motion for summary judgment.

The MDL involves two of Zimmer Biomet’s femoral hip stems – the M/L Taper Hip Prosthesis and the M/L Taper with Kinectiv Technology – and its cobalt-chrome femoral head, the VerSys Femoral Head. Plaintiffs allege that the products are defective when paired together due to an increased risk of corrosion, metal debris release, and resulting metal-related injuries.

This marks the second time Faegre Drinker has won a Rule 702 motion and motion for summary judgment in the MDL. In 2021, the court granted Zimmer Biomet’s motion for summary judgment and excluded the MDL plaintiffs’ general design expert in the first bellwether case, after which approximately 95% of the MDL resolved.

In this case, the plaintiff alleged that his Kinectiv femoral stem fractured six years after implantation due to an alleged defect. The court excluded the plaintiff’s expert testimony in its entirety, finding that the expert did not reliably support his defect theory or rule out other potential causes for the fracture, including patient factors such as age, weight, and activity levels.

The Faegre Drinker team representing Zimmer Biomet is led by product liability and mass torts partners Peter Meyer and Sean Powell. The team also includes partner Steve Bennett and associates Elizabeth Wurm, Niko Spilson, and Emilie Erickson.