3M Loses Third Trial Over Military Earplugs

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HHTM
June 21, 2021

Last week, a federal jury found that 3M Co failed to provide adequate safety warnings for its combat earplugs and that a U.S. Army veteran who said he developed tinnitus after using them sustained $1.7 million in damages, the second such verdict against the company.

The ultimate amount that 3M would have pay to Lloyd Baker will be smaller, as the jury in Pensacola, Florida, found the company only 62% liable, according to a spokesperson for the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the federal mass tort.

Jurors found that 3M failed to provide adequate warnings for the earplugs, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz, Shelley Hutson of Clark, Love & Hutson and Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss.

“Two juries have now determined that 3M knew their earplugs were defective, yet they allowed our servicemembers to suffer these life-altering injuries,” they said in a statement. “We plan to hold 3M fully accountable for the damage they have caused to those who served our nation.

 

Hearing Loss & Tinnitus Claims

 

3M is facing more than 230,000 claims by veterans and service members over the earplugs, known as Combat Arms Earplugs Version 2, in the Florida court, in the largest consolidated federal mass tort in U.S. history.

The latest case was the third over the earplugs to go to trial. The first trial resulted in a verdict of $7.1 million for three plaintiffs in April, while the second ended in a victory for 3M in May.

Read the full story by Reuters here.

 

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