The federal district judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation (MDL) against 3M Co.’s military earplugs has dismissed more than 20,000 injury claims on the MDL’s administrative docket, suggesting the court is winnowing out the weaker cases.
The orders dismissing the claims without prejudice were signed May 6 by Judge M. Casey Rodgers of the Northern District of Florida, who said that those filing these claims had failed to show adequate proof of military service.
3M welcomed the development even as the vast majority of the claims on the administrative docket remain intact.
“These cases will remain dismissed unless plaintiffs address certain fundamental deficiencies in the coming weeks,” 3M’s spokeswoman, Carolyn LaViolette, said in an email to the Florida Record.
The claims dismissals come amid the final bellwether, or test, trial in what has been described as one of the largest U.S. mass tort actions in history, with hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs alleging that they suffered hearing loss or tinnitus as a result of using defective earplugs during their military service.
A 3M blog described the judge’s orders as evidence that the court is continuing “the process to dismantle the administrative docket of unvetted, unverified claims in this litigation.”
Currently, there’s no way to determine whether those who filed the dismissed claims would be able to take the necessary steps to revive their allegations, the blog says.
“3M supports recent efforts, like these orders, by the MDL court to help prevent potentially frivolous lawsuits and to remove existing claims without merit,” the company’s blog says. “Requiring expedient vetting could help provide greater certainty into the actual number of cases in the MDL.”
The use of bellwether trials in MDLs such as the 3M earplugs litigation is designed to test the legal waters and show whether plaintiffs’ arguments resonate with juries or whether defense arguments tend to carry the day. The results of such bellwether trials can lead defendants to negotiate for an overall settlement.
3M seemed open to a future settlement if conditions are right.
“As we do in any litigation, 3M considers all reasonable resolutions based on what is in the best interest of the company,” LaViolette said.
The plaintiffs’ legal firm Miller & Zois said the judge’s dismissals could bring the parties closer to a global settlement because Miller & Zois agrees that not all of the earplugs claims are valid. Honing the legal claims so that they include only those who were actually harmed may push the parties closer to a settlement, according to the law firm.