3M to Face Hundreds of Veteran Hearing Loss Suits in Florida (1)

Suits linking alleged defects in 3M Co.‘s combat earplugs led to hearing loss in hundreds of members of the U.S. military will be consolidated in federal court in Florida, a federal panel of judges decided April 3.

The rapidly swelling mass tort litigation now consists of 643 related federal cases, according to the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

3M and numerous plaintiffs sought centralization in federal court in Minnesota, where 3M is based. But the panel chose the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida instead, where Judge M. Casey Rodgers will oversee the multidistrict litigation. ...