3M Off Hook for $3.4 Million in Interest on Earplug Verdict

3M Co. can avoid paying several years’ interest—amounting to $3.4 million on a $15 million jury award—to a U.S. Army veteran who blamed the company’s combat earplugs for his hearing loss, a federal court in Florida ruled.

Ronald Sloan isn’t entitled to prejudgment interest on his compensatory damages, Judge M. Casey Rodgers said Monday for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Sloan also obtained $40 million punitive damages as part of the jury verdict, but didn’t seek interest on that amount.

Rodgers, who oversees the multidistrict litigation over Combat Arms version 2 earplugs made by 3M and subsidiary Aearo Technologies LLC, also trimmed the number of claimants in a recent order.

More than 290,000 cases were pending as of April 15, according to a report of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Many were filed in an “administrative” docket.

But in an order May 6, Rodgers dismissed about 20,000 veterans’ cases for failure to provide “basic proof of military service.” Those plaintiffs will have the chance to re-file if they can provide the necessary documents.

Sloan’s and fellow veteran Willam Wayman’s claims made up the 11th test trial in the MDL, which took place in January. Sloan and Wayman each were awarded $15 million in compensatory damages and $40 million in punitive damages, the largest verdict in the bellwether process to date.

Kentucky law, which governs Sloan’s claims, doesn’t allow prejudgment interest on claims for bodily harm, Rodgers said here.

Plaintiffs’ lead counsel in the multidistrict litigation are Clark, Love & Hutson GP; Seeger Weiss LLP; and Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz PLLC. Those firms and Ciresi Conlin LLP represented Sloan and Wayman at trial.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Dechert LLP, and Moore, Hill & Westmoreland PA represent the defendants in Sloan’s case.

The case is Sloan v. 3M Co., 2022 BL 160350, N.D. Fla., No. 7:20-cv-00001, 5/9/22.