3M Earplug Judges Mull Paths to Affirm Trial Verdicts (Correct)

3M Co. parried questions Monday from judges on an Eleventh Circuit panel who seemed open to affirming four veterans’ hearing-loss verdicts and a crucial, underlying lower-court ruling denying immunity for defects in the company’s combat earplugs.

The case could knock out all of the suits in the potentially billion-dollar litigation if 3M prevails.

“If we say the district court erred” in stating some of the requirements for 3M to take on the government’s immunity from suit as a contractor, “can we still affirm?” one of the judges asked an attorney for the veterans, Ashley Conrad Keller.

He assured the court ...