3M faces $100 billion in losses from earplug lawsuits, legal counsel testifies (NYSE: MMM)
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3M (NYSE:MMM) could face a loss of more than 100 billion dollars and even bankruptcy due to lawsuits brought by veterans who blame their hearing problems on faulty earplugs, according to testimony Tuesday from a litigation counsel hired by the company’s litigation attorney; Stocks were little changed in trading Tuesday.
Initial results from several test cases show that 3M (MMM) would be covered by losses if 230K lawsuits related to the company’s military earplugs business were continued, the plaintiffs counsel testified in bankruptcy court, Bloomberg reported.
The company’s lawyers countered those findings during the hearing, arguing that the 19 cases where the jury returned a verdict were exceptional and could not be used to extrapolate the results to other cases. other.
Some supporters of the soldiers suing want the bankruptcy judge to block 3M (MMM) from paying dividends to shareholders, buying back shares, or recovering assets, if the judge also decides to put the lawsuits on hold.
3M (MMM) is in federal court trying to convince a bankruptcy judge to stop the lawsuits while the company’s subsidiary Aearo Technologies reorganizes in bankruptcy, a strategy a federal judge said on Wednesday. Two is “naked duplication. “
