Jury Awards Veteran With Hearing Loss $1.7 Million in Third Bellwether Trial
A Florida jury’s $1.7 million judgment in favor of the plaintiff on June 18, 2021, handed The 3M Company its second defeat in bellwether trials over hearing loss alleged to have resulted from the company’s earplugs.
That’s more bad news for 3M, which won the second bellwether trial, according to
Bloomberg Industry Group, but was on the losing side of a $7.1 million verdict in the first trial, the
However, it’s good news for the 240,000 plaintiffs current and former U.S. service members who suffered hearing loss and tinnitus whose 3M earplug lawsuits are still in progress. The case has now become the largest mass tort matter in the United States.
3M Bellwether Trial Update | Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley jdsupra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jdsupra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A jury on Friday awarded more than $7.1 million in damages to three former service members from Kentucky and Georgia in the first bellwether trial of a massive and complex lawsuit against the company.
If the verdict stands and if similar verdicts are reached in more bellwether trials 3M could pay out millions to service members who used the Combat Arms Earplugs, Version 2 (CAEv2).
3M and its subsidiary Aearo Technologies sold the earplugs to the Department of Defense from 2003 to 2015, and they became the standard-issue earplug for troops serving on the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The football-shaped earplugs were designed to block out all sound when inserted one way and allow spoken sounds through when inserted the other way. But according to the lawsuit, 3M withheld critical information on their proper usage from the government.
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3M Hit With $7.1M Verdict In Earplug MDL Bellwether Trial
Law360 (April 30, 2021, 9:39 PM EDT) A Florida federal jury hit 3M with a $7.1 million verdict Friday, most of it punitive damages, in the first bellwether trial in a massive multidistrict litigation involving military members claims that their hearing was irreparably harmed because the company s combat earplugs didn t work.
3M is facing more than $7 million in damages after a jury sided with former servicemembers who said their hearing was damaged as a result of the company s combat earplugs. (iStock) The jury in Pensacola agreed with three former servicemembers who said 3M and a predecessor, Aearo LLC, supplied combat arms earplugs called CAEv2s that failed to protect against.