For months, Ann McCracken was mentally preparing herself for lengthy testimony about the pain from her defective hip implant.
"I was ready to close down my business for a number of weeks to go to Cleveland for the trial," said McCracken, owner of Rochester's A Good Sign company. " ... It's kind of like I'd burned up my emotional clutch at that point."
Instead, the manufacturer of the hip implant, DePuy Orthopeadics Inc., this month agreed to a settlement that could total more than $2.4 billion and resolve thousands of lawsuits, including McCracken's. DePuy's parent company is Johnson & Johnson.
McCracken, 58, had been selected as a "bellwether" case, scheduled for trial so the parties could determine how juries might react to the allegations. In that role, her case may have helped determine whether settlement was the best option for DePuy, but the company decided to resolve the case beforehand.
In September, on the eve of McCracken's trial, the judge decided to give the parties another chance to reach resolution, said Hadley Matarazzo, an attorney with Rochester's Faraci Lange firm who represented McCracken and others suing DePuy
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