Our Law.com colleague Amanda Bronstad, who covers the mass torts and product liability world, called Graham’s decision “a game-changing win for plaintiffs attorneys suing over combat earplugs.” Our litigators of the week this week are three of the lawyers who helped change the game: Robert Pfister of KTBS Law, Eric Winston of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Melanie Cyganowski of Otterbourg P.C, the former chief bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of New York.
On August 26, 2022, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued an opinion after a three-day evidentiary hearing in the In re Aearo Technologies LLC chapter 11 case denying the Aearo debtors’ request for a preliminary injunction to protect their solvent, non-debtor parent 3M Company. The prevailing objecting parties who opposed the motion are law firms representing plaintiffs with verdicts and claims against 3M and the Aearo debtors for personal injuries arising from the use of certain Combat Arms Earplugs manufactured, marketed, and sold by 3M and Aearo. KTBS Law LLP played an instrumental role in the briefing, discovery, and trial. The objecting parties were ultimately successful in persuading the bankruptcy judge to reject the injunction, permitting the plaintiffs’ lawsuits against non-debtor 3M to go forward in multi-district litigation pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The bankruptcy judge’s opinion, linked below, is the first denial of such a request in the recent wave of mass tort bankruptcy cases.
In a June 6 unanimous decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court in Siegel v. Fitzgerald addressed the question of “whether Congress’ enactment of a significant fee increase that exempted debtors in two states violated the uniformity requirement” of the Constitution.[1]
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KTBS and its attorneys have once again been highly ranked by Chambers USA, which annually researches and ranks the leading firms and lawyers in an extensive range of practice areas throughout the United States.
