The current and former US military who sued 3M over allegedly defective military earplugs have asked a US judge to throw out the bankruptcy of 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies, accusing the company of using bankruptcy to protect itself from litigation, which has become the largest mass tort in US history.
The military group said late Thursday that Aearo’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy should face the same fate as the bankruptcy of a subsidiary created by Johnson & Johnson, which was used to settle lawsuits alleging that J&J’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer. A federal appeals court threw out the bankruptcy strategy this week.
3M Co is facing more than 230,000 lawsuits accusing it of selling defective earplugs that caused hearing loss to members of the US military. The company has sought to resolve those lawsuits through Aearo’s bankruptcy.
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3M’s plan fell through when US bankruptcy judge Jeffrey Graham in Indianapolis ruled that Aearo’s bankruptcy did not stop the earplug lawsuits against parent company 3M, which is not bankrupt. 3M is appealing that ruling.
Now, the service members who are suing want Graham to go a step further and end Aearo’s bankruptcy entirely. In a Thursday court filing, they cited a Monday ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia that dismissed a bankruptcy case filed by J&J subsidiary LTL Management because neither J&J nor LTL were in ” financial difficulties”.
J&J denies the cancer claims and is challenging the Third Circuit ruling.
US military personnel who sued 3M over allegedly defective earplugs have asked a judge to throw out the bankruptcy suit of a company subsidiary.
(REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File photo)
LTL, like Aearo, filed for bankruptcy with an agreement that its non-bankrupt parent would fund a settlement of the bankruptcy lawsuits. Those financing deals undermined the plaintiffs’ arguments that 3M and J&J were “hiding assets” from potential creditors, but they also undermined the companies’ arguments that they could not afford trials outside of bankruptcy court.
The committee representing service members in bankruptcy court said in Thursday’s filing that LTL’s decision “removes the accoutrements from these cases and requires their dismissal.”
“Like J&J, 3M is a multibillion-dollar corporate company that is not remotely in financial trouble and therefore should not be able to use bankruptcy against the service members it injured,” attorneys for the plaintiffs said in a statement. , Bryan Aylstock and Chris Seeger. .
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3M said Friday it would oppose efforts to dismiss the bankruptcy. He has denied responsibility for him, saying his earplugs offered soldiers protection while allowing them to hear on the battlefield.
Dismissing Aearo’s bankruptcy would “unnecessarily disrupt” settlement negotiations and force 3M to return to “protracted litigation in the mass tort system, which after sixteen trials to date has provided neither clarity nor certainty,” 3M said.
3M has lost 10 of the 16 cases that have gone to trial so far, with about $265 million awarded in total to 13 plaintiffs.
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The lawsuits have been consolidated in a Florida federal court. Aearo placed $1 billion in a trust to liquidate them and agreed to indemnify 3M for all liability related to the earplugs.
