Lawyers for veterans suing 3M Co. over its earplugs have asked a federal judge to dismiss the bankruptcy filing of a 3M subsidiary that would shield the industrial conglomerate from court trials, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The motion for dismissal filed late Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana followed a federal appeals court ruling last week that tossed out a chapter 11 filing by LTL Management LLC, a company created by Johnson & Johnson in 2021. J&J had transferred its talcum-powder-related liabilities to LTL, which then filed for bankruptcy, blocking plaintiffs from bringing additional lawsuits. 3M, the St. Paul, Minn.-based manufacturer of thousands of consumer and industrial products, followed a similar strategy in 2022. Its Aearo Technologies LLC subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after accepting the responsibility for about 230,000 claims from veterans alleging that 3M’s foam earplugs failed to protect them from service-related hearing loss. 3M has said that its military earplugs are safe if service members receive proper training on using them. Aearo was the original manufacturer of the earplugs, but 3M acquired the company in 2008 and absorbed its operations into 3M. 3M pledged last summer to pay for the settlement of the claims negotiated by Aearo in bankruptcy court.
