Jury Sides With 3M in Second Trial Alleging Defective Earplugs -- Update
May 28 2021 - 9:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Randazzo
A Florida jury late Friday sided with 3M Co. in a case alleging
the company's earplugs caused a veteran's hearing problems, the
first defense win for the company in burgeoning litigation around
the earplugs.
The defense win comes in the second case to go to trial out of
more than 230,000 similar claims alleging 3M knowingly sold faulty
earplugs to branches of the military for decades. The lawsuits
involve a distinctive dark-green-and-yellow earplug designed to
fully block noise if inserted into the ear in one direction, with
the other side intended to let in nearby voices but shield the ear
from harmful ballistic noises.
The first trial ended with a $7.1 million verdict for three
veterans who blamed the earplugs for hearing loss and tinnitus, or
a ringing in the ears.
3M stopped selling the earplugs in 2015 and has stood by the
safety of the product. In 2018, the company reached a $9.1 million
settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, without admitting to
any liability, to resolve allegations in a whistleblower complaint
that 3M failed to disclose deficiencies in the product.
The majority of the claims have been consolidated in front of
U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in Pensacola, Fla., in a
process known as multidistrict litigation. The judge selected
plaintiffs for three so-called bellwether trials, which will help
give both sides a sense of how juries react to the claims.
The lawsuits allege that 3M's dual-ended Combat Arms earplugs
could loosen without the user realizing it and that the
instructions to get a proper fit weren't intuitive.
The second jury heard the case of Dustin McCombs, an addiction
counselor in Ohio who said his use of the earplugs while serving in
the Army caused tinnitus. Mr. McCombs said during proceedings in
the case in January that he first noticed the tinnitus during a
deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, a year into his three years of
service. His roles in the Army included training soldiers on how to
use heavy machine guns.
Lawyers for Mr. McCombs said Friday night that they were
disappointed by the jury's conclusion and look forward to the third
trial. "We continue to believe that the evidence overwhelmingly
demonstrates that 3M knew their...earplugs were defective," the
lawyers said.
A 3M spokeswoman said: "We are pleased with today's verdict and
will continue to vigorously defend ourselves in upcoming
trials."
Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 28, 2021 21:31 ET (01:31 GMT)
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