Veterans who claim that 3M Co's military-issue earplugs caused hearing damage are asking the judge overseeing their record-shattering mass tort litigation to block the company from offloading its liability onto a bankrupt subsidiary, Reuters reported. Two motions filed this week in Pensacola, Florida, federal court by plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation made separate arguments over why the company could not escape the nearly 300,000 lawsuits by putting its Aearo Technologies subsidiary — the original maker of the earplugs, which 3M bought in 2008 — into bankruptcy. 3M has said it believes bankruptcy law allows for this strategy and has argued that the Indianapolis bankruptcy court can resolve the earplug claims more fairly than the MDL. "We are prepared to move forward and believe the applicable law supports our position," 3M said in a statement. Aearo filed for bankruptcy on July 26 and said it had committed $1 billion to resolve the earplug litigation. Out of the 16 trials in that litigation to date involving 19 service members, plaintiffs have won 10, with about $265 million in combined awards to 13 plaintiffs.
