The MDL is In re 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, U.S. Juries have sided with 3M in five other trials. Plaintiffs had won more than $160 million combined in six previous bellwether trials, including a $110 million award in January to two U.S. Plaintiffs allege the company hid design flaws, fudged test results and failed to provide instructions for the proper use of the earplugs.
On appeal in an earlier case, 3M had argued that the military was responsible for the product's design and that the plaintiffs' state law claims were preempted because of 3M's role as a federal contractor following government mandates.Īearo Technologies, which 3M bought in 2008, developed the product. It said the issues raised in its earlier appeals relating to legal defenses and evidentiary rulings applied to both cases. The 9.1 million settlement with 3M resolved allegations that the company sold (or caused to be sold) defective earplugs to the Defense Logistics Agency. "It is clear 3M’s defenses - whether in the courts, to investors, or the public - are unconvincing and without merit," the plaintiffs' lawyers said in a joint statement.ģM, which was represented by Mike Brock and Brent Rogers of Kirkland & Ellis, in a statement said it was disappointed and will appeal. The lead lawyers for the plaintiffs in the litigation – Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz Shelley Hutson of Clark, Love & Hutson and Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss – noted 3M had lost six earlier trials. The 42-year-old Indiana resident served in the army from 1999 to 2020, first as a howitzer gunner and later as a Green Beret. One of the three resulted in a jury verdict in favor of 3M. The verdict in Vilsmeyer's case was the second largest in the litigation and was made up entirely of compensatory damages. The first three trials involving 3M’s Combat Arms earplugs under the consolidated multidistrict litigation taking place in Pensacola resulted in at least two jury verdicts in favor of injured veterans with damages totaling 8.8 million. They are among the more than 280,000 former and active military members who have sued 3M claiming the company's combat earplugs are defective and damaged their hearing, in what has become the largest federal mass tort litigation in U.S.