Company sues Kentucky lawyer for alleged ‘frivolous’ black lung lawsuits

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (WOWK) – A Kentucky lawyer is one of three attorneys the 3M Company is accusing of filing fraudulent and frivolous lawsuits against them on behalf of miners with black lung.

According to the lawsuit, attorneys Glenn Hammond of Pike County, Michael Martin of Friendswood, Texas, and John “Johnny” Givens of Mississippi are accused by 3M of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and conspiracy to do so, fraud and civil conspiracy.

The lawsuit accuses the attorneys of soliciting coal miners for “cookie-cutter complaints” to blame 3M for their black lung disease diagnoses and other coal mining injuries, and of coaching those miners to lie about the allegations. 3M alleges that the attorneys filed complaints knowing they supposedly contained false statements regarding the miners’ use of 3M dust masks and when the workers first realized they were ill.

The company claims that the three attorneys have filed more than 850 cases against it combined. According to the lawsuit, more than half of those claims were filed in one state over the course of 18 months. 3M says many of the lawsuits are still pending and have and will cost the company millions to litigate and investigate, calling the lawsuits a waste of 3M’s time and money.

“The timing was intentional, designed to exert maximum pressure on 3M to settle the entire inventory of cases – including claims Defendants knew were fraudulent—at a huge sum,” the company’s lawsuit states.

The company is seeking compensatory damages against the defendants to compensate for its financial damages from the complaints, as well as a portion of the “ill-gotten gains from the Defendants’ unlawful scheme,” punitive and treble damages, as well as court costs and attorneys’ fees.

3M Company is alleging that not only does the alleged scheme cheat them, it exploits miners and “burdens the courts” with cases that should never have been filed to begin with.

According to the lawsuit, eastern Kentucky has a high rate of black lung disease, also known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and have sought compensation through avenues such as black lung benefits claims, state and federal workers compensation and Social Security Disability insurance, but many have also filed personal injury lawsuits against the mine operators.

The lawsuit claims that many of those miners who filed lawsuits against their former employers have, unfortunately, not been able to get the full or satisfactory relief because those businesses either ceased operations or went out of business. According to the lawsuit, because of this, attorneys allegedly turned to suing companies that make and sell dust masks, alleging they fail to protect workers from inhaling coal dust.

3M alleges that the issue with this theory is that few coal miners actually wear dust masks in mines, as the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 states dust masks are not meant to be a primary means to control dust exposure and that the law requires mine operators to use engineering controls such as ventilation, wet face mining and other measures to mitigate or eliminate dust exposure.

According to the lawsuit, many mine operators actually encouraged workers not to wear the dust masks under the theory that the air was safe to breathe.

The lawsuit claims that despite historical survey data showing that less than 10% of workers wore dust masks, thousands of individual lawsuits have been filed in recent years claiming the miner in the lawsuit did wear them and developed black lung due to the faultiness of the device.

The company also alleges that Hammond was sanctioned by the Kentucky Supreme Court last October for professional misconduct in a case against 3M, and that he was previously sued for legal malpractice for failing to file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations.

Nexstar’s WOWK 13 News reached out to Hammond for comment on Monday evening. We will update this article once we hear back.