3M Earplug Witness Will Have to Testify for Service Members

Three service members suing 3M Co. over hearing loss allegedly caused by its combat earplugs may make one of the company’s key defense witnesses testify in their case-in-chief in the consolidated litigation’s first bellwether trial, a federal court in Florida ruled.

The plaintiffs did nothing improper by serving Elliot Berger, a scientist for 3M’s Personal Safety Division, with a subpoena when he arrived at his Pensacola hotel for the test trial, Judge M. Casey Rodgers said Wednesday for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Berger was involved in the earplugs’ development and testing, according to documents ...