Legal
3M Can’t Use Bankruptcy to Halt Lawsuits Over Combat Earplugs, Judge Rules
- 3M Ruling Disrupts Company Strategy for Ending Soldiers Suits
- Unless Ruling is Overturned, 3M Faces 230,000 Jury Trials
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3M Co. lost its fight to block jury trials in more than 230,000 lawsuits accusing it of harming US soldiers. The company’s shares fell the most in more than three years after the ruling.
US Bankruptcy Judge Jeffrey J. Graham refused to temporarily halt the lawsuits accusing 3M and its bankrupt subsidiary, Aearo Technologies, of selling faulty combat earplugs that damaged the hearing of veterans who used them.