Army Veteran Wins $22.5 Million From 3M Over Defective Combat Arms Earplugs in Federal Bellwether Trial

A federal jury in Pensacola, Florida, returned a $22.5 million verdict on December 10, 2021, for Theodore Finley, a former Army soldier whose hearing was damaged while he wore 3M's Combat Arms Earplug Version 2. The jury awarded $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages. At the time it was the largest award in the bellwether trials of the 3M earplug litigation.

Finley served in the Army from 2006 to 2014. He wore the dual-ended Combat Arms earplugs, which were issued to service members and were meant to block harmful noise while letting a wearer hear conversation and commands. He alleged that the noise around him, from weapons fire, generators, mechanized vehicles, helicopters and airplanes, left him with bilateral tinnitus, a constant ringing in both ears, and noise-induced hearing loss.

The earplugs were designed by Aearo Technologies, which 3M acquired in 2008. Plaintiffs in the litigation argued that the product had a design flaw: the plug was too short to seat properly in many ear canals, and a wearer who did not know to fold back the flexible flanges could be left with a loose fit and little protection. They said 3M and Aearo never gave soldiers adequate instructions. 3M contended the earplugs were effective and safe to use.

Finley's case was one of thousands filed by service members in the multidistrict litigation, more than 272,000 claims at the time of the verdict. It was selected as a bellwether, and Chief Judge Mark Walker presided over the jury trial in Pensacola. A pretrial order set it to begin on November 30, and the jury returned its verdict on the ninth day of trial. Before trial, the court granted Finley summary judgment on several of 3M's defenses, including its intermediary, superseding cause and failure to mitigate defenses, and denied 3M's own summary judgment motion.

The court docket lists Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys of Corpus Christi, Texas, among Finley's counsel. Thomas J. Henry paid the case's filing fee, Roger L. Turk and Russell W. Endsley entered appearances for Finley, and Lesley Paniszczyn filed the plaintiff's proposed jury instructions and verdict form during trial. Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, Shelley Hutson of Clark, Love & Hutson and Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss were also named as plaintiffs' counsel in coverage of the trial, and Gibbs Law Group appears on the docket as well.

The clerk entered final judgment for Finley against 3M Company and the Aearo entities on December 13, 2021, for the full $22.5 million plus costs and post-judgment interest. In January 2022, 3M moved for judgment as a matter of law, and Finley moved to alter the judgment. The docket shows no ruling on either motion. In July 2022 the court struck a 3M notice that it intended to seek relief from the judgments in nine bellwether cases. On September 28, 2023, the parties filed a stipulation dismissing the case with prejudice. The terms of that resolution are not public.