2 days ago
3M lawsuit says attorneys falsified black lung claims to pressure settlement
CHICAGO, June 13 (Reuters) - 3M sued three plaintiffs' attorneys in federal court on Friday, accusing them of running a racketeering scheme to file dozens of dubious lawsuits over its respirators and then use the claims to pressure the company to settle.
The Minnesota-based company sued attorneys Glenn Hammond, Michael Martin and John Givens in Kentucky federal court, accusing them of conspiring to file more than 20 fraudulent complaints on behalf of more than 850 people over the alleged failure of 3M's respirators to protect coal miners from a disease commonly known as black lung.
Hammond's law office is in Kentucky, Martin's is in Texas and Givens' is in Mississippi.
A law assistant answered an email sent to Martin, saying he was not immediately available to comment on the allegations.
Neither Hammond nor Givens immediately responded to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for 3M declined to comment.
The company is seeking reimbursement of its costs to defend against the lawyers' claims, as well as 'the ill-gotten gains from the defendants' unlawful scheme.'
3M has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation costs related to lawsuits brought by coal miners over its 'dust masks,' or respirators, which can be worn in mines as a protective measure against dust, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 2018, a jury awarded two coal miners $65 million after finding that 3M's respirators failed to protect them from coal mine dust. The next year, the company settled the majority of the then-pending coal mine lawsuits in Kentucky and West Virginia for $340 million, according to the filings.
In the filings, 3M said its respirators are "effective as claimed when used in the intended manner and in the intended circumstances."
The 110-page complaint lays out what 3M says was a years-long plot, beginning in 2020, to pump up the pressure on the company by filing claims the lawyers knew were for people who didn't have black lung, hadn't worn a 3M respirator or were outside of the statute of limitations. 3M says the lawyers falsely attested that the claims were valid.
Hammond was responsible for recruiting coal miners to their scheme, often cold-calling them and then coaching them on what to say to make their cases seem viable, the lawsuit said. Hammond would file the claims, and then Martin would litigate them and apply pressure on 3M to settle, the lawsuit said. Givens was the 'work engine' of the plot, doing whatever was needed to move things forward, according to the filing.
The plan was to pressure the company to settle the claims en masse, without litigating each case and revealing its problems, the lawsuit claims.
At least some of the lawsuits the group brought against 3M are still pending, according to the lawsuit.
