Johnson & Johnson got hit with a $247 million verdict on Thursday in the fourth bellwether trial over its hip implants.

A federal jury in Dallas awarded $78 million in compensatory damages and $168 million in punitive damages to six people who sued over its Pinnacle hip implants, made by subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. About 9,300 similar lawsuits have been consolidated in multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade. Previous bellwether trials have ended in one defense verdict in an individual case and awards of $1.04 billion and $502 million in trials featuring a group of plaintiffs.

The jury, which deliberated for 14 hours, found that both Johnson & Johnson and DePuy were negligent and strictly liable for the defective design and manufacture of the hip implants, which caused pain and other problems in patients. Jurors also found they failed to warn about and concealed those issues and made misrepresentations to surgeons about the safety of the products. The trial was particularly contentious among the lawyers, which included lead plaintiffs attorney Mark Lanier from The Lanier Law Firm in Houston and Johnson & Johnson counsel John Beisner, a Washington D.C. partner at New York's Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The trial even featured allegations of witness tampering — though the judge in the case barred jurors from hearing that testimony.

“We thank this jury for sending a very strong message about the responsibility the defendants have to take care of their consumers,” said Lanier in a statement. “Unfortunately, it took the defendants putting the plaintiffs through burdensome litigation before justice could be served. The companies should have done the right thing when these serious medical concerns became known many years ago.”

DePuy spokeswoman Stela Meirelles said in a statement that the company would appeal immediately.

“We acted appropriately and responsibly in the development of ULTAMET Metal-on-Metal, and the device is backed by a strong record of clinical data showing reduced pain and restored mobility for patients suffering from chronic hip pain,” she wrote.

Johnson & Johnson has appealed the two previous verdicts, raising a host of arguments such as jurisdiction, the use of consolidated trials, “inflammatory rhetoric” and accusations that Lanier concealed payments to expert witnesses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has scheduled oral arguments in the $502 million verdict appeal for Dec. 4.

Before the latest trial began, DePuy had filed a petition for writ of mandamus, arguing that Kinkeade, of the Northern District of Texas, had improperly imposed jurisdiction in the trial. Johnson & Johnson is based in New Jersey, and the plaintiffs were all from New York.

On Aug. 31, two of three judges on a Fifth Circuit panel refused to grant the petition but found Kinkeade had committed “grave error” in allowing certain trials to take place before him, including this upcoming trial. Beisner referenced that ruling in a statement on Thursday.

“This verdict is a pyrrhic victory for plaintiffs, particularly given the Fifth Circuit's pre-trial ruling that the MDL court committed 'grave error' in determining that it had jurisdiction to hold this trial in the first place,” he wrote. He also indicated that a settlement was unlikely.

“This nine-week trial was a disservice to everyone involved because the verdict will do nothing to advance the ultimate resolution of this six-year old litigation,” he wrote.