UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 

PENSACOLA DIVISION 

IN RE: 3M COMBAT ARMS 

EARPLUG PRODUCTS 

 Case No. 3:19md2885 

LIABILITY LITIGATION 

This Document Relates to All Cases 

 

Judge M. Casey Rodgers 

Magistrate Judge Hope T. Cannon 

ORDER AND NOTICE 

The Parties’ settlement agreement, more specifically MSA I, contemplates 

that Eligible Claimants will be paid their settlement awards on a First-In, First-Out 

(“FIFO”) basis. See MSA I §§ 10.2.1, 10.2.2, ECF No. 3809-1. In simple terms, this 

means that Eligible Claimants who accurately complete and sign their registration 

forms, including the legal release of 3M from all CAEv2 claims, earliest in the 

registration period will receive their payments before Claimants who fully register 

later. However, there are some caveats to the FIFO rules, particularly for those 

Claimants with liens or other legal impediments to early payment. 

As a result, on January 8, 2024, BrownGreer entered a Notice on the 

Settlement Program website, https://3m-earplugsettlement.com, outlining the FIFO 

procedure (“FIFO Notice”).1

 BrownGreer and the Settlement Allocation Master 

developed the procedure, which was then approved by the undersigned. The FIFO 

1

 This Notice will also be posted on this Court’s public website for the MDL, 

https://www.flnd.uscourts.gov/3m-products-liability-litigation-mdl-no-2885. 
Page 2 of 2 

Notice is attached as Exhibit A. Primary Counsel are hereby directed to advise their 

clients of the FIFO procedure and to direct them to the FIFO Notice entered on the 

Settlement Program website. Eligible Claimants are encouraged to review the FIFO 

Notice. The Clerk is directed to enter this Order on the MDL docket and on all 

Eligible Claimants’ individual dockets. 

SO ORDERED, on this 9th day of January, 2024. 

M. Casey Rodgers 

M. CASEY RODGERS 

 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 
EXHIBIT A 
557711 

ALERT FROM THE SETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATOR 

SUBJECT: ANNOUNCEMENT OF FIFO PROCEDURE AND FIRST PAYMENTS 

TO EXPEDITED PAY PROGRAM FAST TRACK CLAIMANTS 

DATE: JANUARY 8, 2024 ALERT NUMBER 24-0001 

The MSA-I Combat Arms Settlement Agreement and the Settlement Allocation Methodology 

requires payments to MSA I Claimants who elected to participate in the Expedited Pay Program 

(“EPP”) to be on a First In, First Out (“FIFO”) basis. The Settlement Administrator and Allocation 

Special Master have prepared the attached FIFO Procedure so Claimants and Primary Counsel can 

review the FIFO methodology and understand how it will be applied. 

The FIFO (Procedure No. PT-0001) is available on the current Settlement Program website at 3mearplugsettlement.com) under the Important Updates page. It and all future Procedures governing 

the administration of the Settlement Program will be available on the official website and on the 

homepage of the secure Portals for both Primary Counsel and unrepresented Claimants. We 

anticipate launching our Portals the week of January 15, 2024, and will send out instructions on 

how to access and use them. Each EPP Claimant’s FIFO rank will be displayed on the Portal and 

Primary Counsel also will have a report identifying their EPP clients’ FIFO rankings. 

The Settlement Program will receive settlement funds from the Defendants on a periodic basis 

over the next six years as prescribed by the Settlement Agreement. The Defendants made the first 

$250 million deposit on December 26, 2023. We assign Settlement Awards to EPP Claimants in 

the order of their FIFO ranking and will pay as many as possible from the initial $250 million 

deposit. 

We anticipate making initial EPP Settlement Award payments in mid-February 2024, and estimate 

that about 20,000 Claimants can be paid from the initial $250 million in the QSF Fund. 

You should read the entire FIFO Procedure. Here is a summary of its essential terms: 

1. How is the FIFO rank determined? This is based upon the date of signature on the first 

Registration Form submitted by the Claimant. 

2. Can a Claimant lose their place in the FIFO ranking and be assigned a new one? Yes, but 

only if the Claimant “reopened” their Registration Form in the Registration process, which 

will cause the Claimant to be assigned a new FIFO rank based on the signature date of the 

Registration Form submitted after the reopening. Other changes in the Registration Form 

do not affect FIFO ranking. 

3. What if the EPP Claimant cannot be paid in full when reached in the FIFO order? What 

happens to the Claimant’s unpaid share? The Procedure lists the “Payment Impediments” 

that can prevent the EPP Award from being paid in full when payments are first issued. 

That unpaid amount (the Procedure calls it the Claimant’s “FIFO Priority Amount”) will 

be held in the QSF Account until the Impediment is cleared up and the withheld amount 

COMBAT ARMS EARPLUGS SETTLEMENT PROGRAM
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can be paid. If the Impediment is something the Claimant can cure but has not done so 

within 180 days after notice from us to do so, the withheld FIFO Priority Amount will be 

reassigned to the next unpaid EPP Claimant in the FIFO order, if the MDL Court approves 

of that action at the time. 

4. Is anything other than EPP payments affected by FIFO? Yes, the $1,000 DPP Registration 

Payment, which we hope to pay by the end of 2024, is to be paid in FIFO order, but that 

will matter only if the QSF Fund does not have sufficient funds to pay all the Registration 

Payments at the time, and we think it will. DPP and MSA III Wave Cases payments are 

not subject to a FIFO order in the MSAs. 
557669 

COMBAT ARMS SETTLEMENTS

SETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATOR PROCEDURE

PROCEDURE NUMBER PT-0001 

Adopted 1/8/24 

Amended 

SUBJECT First In, First Out (FIFO) for Certain Payments 

A. PURPOSE.

This Procedure implements the terms of MSA I and the MSA I Allocation Methodology 

concerning payment of EPP Awards (referred to in the MSA I Allocation Methodology as the 

Minimum Guaranteed Gross Payment or “MGGP”) and DPP Registration Payments on a First In, 

First Out (“FIFO”) basis. 

1. MSA I EPP Claimants:

(a) MSA I Section 10.2.1: Registered Claimants who elect to participate in the Expedited 

Payment Program shall be entitled to full payment on a first-in first-out basis, subject 

to the availability of funds in the QSF to effectuate payment to Registered Claimants. 

(b) Allocation Methodology for MSA I: Timing of Minimum Guaranteed Payments. 

Expedited Pay Program Claimants will be paid their Minimum Guaranteed Gross 

Payment or MGGP on a “First-in First-out” basis, meaning that Claimants who fully 

and accurately complete the registration process the earliest in the registration period 

will be paid before claims received later in the registration period. The Settlement 

Administrator will track the receipt of Expedited Pay Settlement Program Claimants’ 

required documents – the Registration Form, the Release, and the Stipulated Order of 

Dismissal (collectively the “Settlement Program Documents”) –and assign a rank to 

each Claimant who submits Settlement Program Documents that have no deficiencies. 

Claims with no deficiencies received earlier will have a higher “rank” than claims 

received later. Claimants who submit Settlement Program Documents that have a 

deficiency (e.g., a missing signature) will not receive a rank until the deficiencies are 

corrected. . . .As funds become available per the Funding Schedule, Claimants will be 

paid based on their rank. 

2. MSA I DPP Registration Payment: 

(a) MSA I Section 10.2.2: Registered Claimants who elect to participate in the Deferred 

Payment Option shall be entitled to a Registration Payment on a first-in first-out basis, 

subject to the availability of funds in the QSF to effectuate payment to Registered 

Claimants. Upon such time as the funds are available in the QSF and Defendants’ 

Walkaway Rights have expired, then the Deferred Payment Program payment, in 
2 

addition to the Registration Payment, shall be made from the QSF pursuant to the 

Settlement Allocation Master’s allocation methodology. 

(b) Allocation Methodology for MSA I: Registration Payment. All Claimants electing 

to participate in the Deferred Pay Full Evaluation Program will be paid an initial 

Registration Payment of $1,000 (gross) before December 31, 2024. 

(c) DPP Point Award Settlement Amounts: The MSA I and the MSA III Allocation 

Methodologies do not impose a FIFO ranking requirement for payment of Point Award 

Settlement Amounts. We anticipate that all the EPP registrants can be paid out of the 

funding by Defendants through April 2025, as that would be around $3.26B in available 

funds. Each time Defendants deposit into the QSF thereafter, we will determine a Point 

Dollar Value available to pay DPP claimants ready to pay at that time, as follows: 

(1) Point Dollar Value Calculation Date One: October 1, 2025 

(2) Point Dollar Value Calculation Date Two: October 1, 2026 

(3) Point Dollar Value Calculation Date Three: October 1, 2027 

(4) Point Dollar Value Calculation Date Four: October 1, 2028 

(5) Point Dollar Value Calculation Date Five: October 1, 2029 

3. MSA III Wave Cases: MSA III and the MSA III Allocation Methodology do not impose 

a FIFO ranking requirement for any payments to Wave Case Claimants. 

B. PROCESS FOR EPP AWARD PAYMENTS ON A FIFO BASIS

1. EPP Population: Identify in the Registration Data all Participating Eligible Claimants 

(ECs) who elected the EPP and ensure this data is current (as some ECs switched from an 

EPP election to a DPP election after submission of the EC’s Registration Form). 

2. Benchmark Measure of Initial FIFO Ranking: The EC’s FIFO ranking will be 

assigned by the date of signature on the first uploaded Registration Form from the EC, 

which is the “Initial Reg Form Signed” date shown in the Registration Data. Because the 

Registration Form and Release were one document in the Registration process, the 

Registration Form date and the Release date are the same in the Registration Data. In this 

vernacular, a “lower” FIFO rank means the EC is ahead in the FIFO order, while a “higher” 

FIFO ranking means the EC comes later in the FIFO order. 

3. Tiebreaker Rules of Decision:

(a) For Registration Forms with the Same Initial Reg Form Signed date, the EC’s FIFO 

ranking will be determined by the time of day CT the Registration Form was signed, 

as shown in the Registration Data. 
3 

(b) For Registration Forms with the Same Initial Reg Form Signed date and identical time 

of day CT in the Registration Data, the FIFO ranking of the affected ECs will be 

assigned randomly. 

4. The Initial FIFO Rank is Permanent: If, after that first submission, the Registration 

Form/Release/Stip of Dismissal/Lien Form is changed or has to be done over for any 

reason, a later submitted document does not alter the EC’s FIFO ranking, which continues 

to relate back to the date of the first submitted Registration Form. Deficiencies and later 

clean-up on any of these elements of the Registration Package may affect when the EC is 

paid, but do not cause the EC to lose their place in the FIFO order. However, an EPP EC 

who reopened their Registration Form in the CaseLocker system for any purpose after the 

two-week “reflection window” permitted in the Initial Registration process (including a 

reopening to pursue Supplementation of the EPP claim) is assigned a new FIFO ranking 

based upon the date and time of signature of the reopened Registration Form. 

5. Assign Available Funds by FIFO Rank: The FIFO ranking is material at any time that 

the total funds available in the QSF for payment to ECs are not sufficient to pay all the 

ECs who elected the EPP. To distribute the available funds in accordance with FIFO, an 

MGGP will be assigned to each EPP ECS according to their EPP Award Level. This step 

assigns a gross Settlement Award amount to each EPP in the FIFO line out of the available 

funds in the QSF. 

6. General Rule for FIFO Payments: EPP ECs are paid their Settlement Awards in the 

order in which they appear in the FIFO ranking, such that those with a lower FIFO ranking 

are paid ahead of those with a higher FIFO ranking, using all available funds in the QSF. 

7. Payment Impediments: To avoid payments coming to a complete stop when we reach 

an EC in the FIFO ranking who cannot be paid in full or in part because of some issue 

affecting entitlement to payment that has not yet been cleared up, these events or statuses 

(each a “Payment Impediment”) permit the Settlement Program to bypass the EC with 

such a Payment Impediment (temporarily holding back their allocated amount) to pay 

those ECs next in the FIFO ranking: 

(a) Supplementation: The EC pursued EPP Supplementation and EPP Award Level is 

not final. In this situation, the EC’s FIFO Priority Amount as defined below will be 

the EPP Award Level first announced to the EC until the determination on the EPP 

Supplementation becomes final, after which the EC’s FIFO Priority Amount will be 

based upon that final determination amount. 

(b) Reconsideration: EC requested Reconsideration and EPP Award Level is not final. 

(c) Release: Release not yet accepted by Defendants. 

(d) LOC: LOC Claim pursued and no spouse signature on Derivative page of Release. 

(e) Third-Party Funding: Third-Party Funder issue reported in CMO 61 Declaration not 

yet resolved (CMO 61 requires withholding the Award). 

(f) 50% Rule: Violation of 50% Rule (EC to receive less than 50% of Final Settlement 

Award after deduction of 9% Common Benefit Fund, because of attorney’s fees and 
4 

costs from CAE Counsel, regardless of other deductions for Liens or other matters) 

and not yet resolved, 

(g) Law Firm Ledgering: Primary Counsel has not provided the attorney’s fees and costs 

chargeable to the EC (unless the Primary Counsel has opted out of the Settlement 

Administrator Ledgering process). 

(h) Closing Statement: The EC has not signed and returned the applicable Notice to 

confirm agreement on fees and costs deducted (unless the Primary Counsel has opted 

out of the Settlement Administrator Ledgering process). 

(i) Payment Election: The EC has not made a payment method election or information 

from the EC to effect the method elected is missing (unless the Primary Counsel has 

opted out of the Settlement Administrator Ledgering process). 

(j) Alternative Arrangements: The EC has requested payment into a structure or special 

needs trust and arrangements not concluded. 

(k) Deceased EC: The Settlement Administrator is aware that the EC is deceased and the 

Personal Representative has not submitted proof or representative capacity required 

by the Settlement Program. 

(l) Incapacitated EC: The Settlement Administrator is aware that the EC is mentally 

incapacitated and the Personal Representative has not submitted proof or 

representative capacity required by the Settlement Program.

(m)Bankruptcy Issue: The EC has disclosed to the Settlement Administrator that they 

are seeking bankruptcy protection in a currently pending proceeding and has not 

provided the Settlement Administrator with sufficient proof of the resolution of any 

issues arising from the bankruptcy. 

(n) Healthcare Liens: A lien is possible against the EC and Lien amount has not been 

finalized and no appropriate reserve percentage has been adopted. 

(o) Non-Healthcare Lien: A lien of some other type has been asserted against the EC and 

Lien amount has not been finalized and no appropriate reserve percentage has been 

adopted. 

(p) Other: Any other matter directed by the MDL Court or the Settlement Administrator 

preventing full payment to the EC at the time. 

8. The FIFO Priority Amount: A Payment Impediment will cause payment of the Final 

Settlement Award to the affected EC to be bypassed either in full (no amount can be paid 

to the EC at the time) or in part (some amount can be paid to the EC but the residual is 

held back as reserve for an unquantified Lien or other Payment Impediment). That unpaid 

amount is that EC’s “FIFO Priority Amount.” 

9. Disposition of an EC’s FIFO Priority Amount: 

(a) General Rule for FIFO Priority Amounts: The Settlement Program will retain the 

EC’s FIFO Priority Amount in the Settlement Fund, rather than distributing those 
5 

dollars to other ECs next in the FIFO ranking. Such FIFO Priority Amount will be paid 

to the EC (without interest) as appropriate upon the resolution of the Payment 

Impediment(s) that prevented full payment. 

(b) Exception to the General Rule for FIFO Priority Amounts: In any instance in 

which the Payment Impediment is the result of a matter that could be remedied by 

action by the EC (or the EC’s Primary Counsel) and the EC (or Primary Counsel) has 

failed to take the action necessary to remedy the matter within 180 days after notice of 

the deadline for doing so set by the MDL Court or the Settlement Administrator, 

subject to approval by the MDL Court, the EC’s FIFO Priority Amount will be released 

for payment to other ECs in accordance with their FIFO ranking. The EC will retain 

the right to be paid the EC’s former FIFO Priority Amount (without interest) when 

there are funds available in the QSF to permit payments, in accordance with the EC’s 

FIFO ranking compared to all other ECs not paid by that time, if: (1) the EC’s Payment 

Impediment(s) have been remedied by such time; and (2) the EC’s right to further 

payment has not been extinguished by order of the MDL Court or by the Settlement 

Administrator as a result of failure by the EC or the EC”s Primary Counsel to take 

actions necessary to remedy the Payment Impediment, after due notice of the action(s) 

needed. 

C. PROCESS FOR DPP REGISTRATION PAYMENTS ON A FIFO BASIS

1. DPP Population: Identify in the Registration Data all ECs who elected the DPP and 

ensure this data is current (as some ECs switched from an EPP election to a DPP election 

after submission of the EC’s Registration Form). 

2. Benchmark Measure of FIFO Ranking: Mark the EC’s FIFO ranking by the date of 

signature on the first uploaded Registration Form from the EC, as shown in the Registration 

Data, in the same manner applicable to EPP ECs. 

3. The Initial FIFO Rank is Permanent: If, after that first submission, the Registration 

Form/Release/Stip of Dismissal/Lien Form is changed or has to be done over for any 

reason, a later submitted document does not alter the EC’s FIFO ranking, which continues 

to relate back to the date of the first submitted Registration Form, in the same manner 

applicable to EPP ECs. 

4. Payment of DPP Registration Payments: While Section 10.2.2 of MSA I provides that 

“Registered Claimants who elect to participate in the Deferred Payment Option shall be 

entitled to a Registration Payment on a first-in first-out basis,” we expect when the QSF 

has funds are available to issue Registration Payments, there will be sufficient funds to 

pay the Registration Fee to all ECs who elected the DPP. However, if at any time the 

available funds are not sufficient to pay all Registration Fees then due, the Settlement 

Administrator will issue payment of $1,000 to DPP ECs in accordance with their FIFO 

ranking. 

5. Nature of the Registration Payment: The Registration Payment will be considered a 

DPP sign-up payment and not as an advance on a future DPP Award that would be 

deducted from a future DPP Award.