Articles Posted in Product Liability

The very first bellwether trial in the 3M earplugs litigation featured the claims of 3 plaintiffs (Luke Estes, Stephen Hacker, and Lewis Keefer) and ended in a jury verdict awarding the 3 veterans a total of $7.1 million in damages for their alleged hearing loss. Ten more bellwether trials followed, with the most recent ending in a $110 million verdict for 2 plaintiffs.

Immediately following the first bellwether trial, 3M’s defense team vowed that they would fight the verdict on appeal. Last week, 3M’s attorneys filed their appellate brief laying out their argument for why the U.S Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit should overturn the verdict and accept a legal defense that would effectively halt the earplug litigation entirely.

3M’s Legal Arguments in a Nutshell

3M is defending over 280,000 cases alleging that its Combat Arms Earplugs caused military veterans to suffer hearing loss. The 3M earplug litigation is the largest mass tort ever, but until now it has drawn very little attention from investors and financial analysts. That might be about to change. Over the last few days, market analysts from JP Morgan and Morningstar have started to raise some concerns and cautioned that 3M’s earplug liability could potentially be massive.

Background of the 3M Earplug Litigation

For over a decade, 3M’s Combat Arms Earplugs were standard issue equipment for all U.S. Military service members.  The earplugs were supposed to protect soldiers from hearing loss from loud noises, but in 2018 3M settled a false claims lawsuit with the U.S. Government alleging that 3M knew that design defects in the earplugs made them ineffective.

The 11^th bellwether trial in the 3M earplugs litigation ended yesterday with a sobering result for 3M. The jury in Sarasota awarded a total of $110 million to a pair of plaintiffs, Roger Sloan and William Wayman, which included $80 in punitive damages. This is by far the biggest verdict in the ongoing bellwether test trials involving 3M’s allegedly defective earplugs and the size of the punitive damage award should be a blast of reality for 3M. In this post, we will take a closer look at this blockbuster verdict and what it could mean for the future of the 3M earplug lawsuits.

Past Results in 3M Earplug Bellwether Trials

The trial that concluded yesterday was the 11^th bellwether test trial in the 3M earplugs litigation (there have been 14 individual plaintiffs). 6 out of the bellwether trials have resulted in verdicts with sizeable damage awards to 9 individual plaintiffs. The 9 successful bellwether plaintiffs have been awarded a total of just under $162 million in damages.

The 8^th bellwether trial in the massive 3M earplugs litigation concluded last week with a $22.5 million verdict for the plaintiff. This is the biggest verdict so far in the 3M earplug bellwether trials and it marks the second jury in a row that has hit 3M with significant punitive damages. In this post, we will take a closer look at this most recent verdict and what it could mean for the future of the 3M earplug lawsuits.

Facts in Finley Case

Finley exclusively wore the CAEv2 during boot camp, training (2006-2007), and during deployment in Afghanistan (2008-2009).