A Florida federal judge has decided against sanctioning two law firms that signed documents in place of their clients but chastised their lawyers' "obviously improper" act, which could have cut their clients out of their share of the $6 billion settlement in the 3M combat earplugs multidistrict litigation.

Since a majority of the releases at issue have now been signed by the plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers said Friday that she doesn't think the court should take further action, according to her order. But she did note that the erroneous signatures could have spelled disaster for the claimants, military veterans and service members who said they suffered hearing loss due to allegedly faulty combat earplugs produced by 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies LLC.

"It is worth noting that, had primary counsel not cured the deficiency by providing the 'wet signatures,' the releases as signed by counsel would not have been accepted by 3M and these claimants would not be eligible for the settlement program and their cases would be subject to dismissal," the judge said. "Out of the 252,943 claimants participating in the settlement program — represented by 339 different primary counsel firms — only these two firms signed releases for their clients."

Judge Rodgers' order declared as moot the issue of law firms Morris Bart LLC and Brent Coon and Associates submitting "fraudulent release[s]," specifically by signing documents on behalf of 16 of the plaintiffs in the MDL. These releases indicated a plaintiff's intention to partake in the settlement program and drop all potential claims against 3M.

While processing the more than 250,000 releases, 3M said it noticed that 16 of them seemed to be signed by someone other than the veterans or service members who had sued, according to the court record. Upon further review, Judge Rodgers said that the releases contained irregularities, specifically that the signatures were "dissimilar" to the plaintiffs' photo IDs and that the writing style indicated they might have been done by the same person.

On May 1, Judge Rodgers ordered the two firms to tell her if these were indeed the real signatures of the plaintiffs and, if they were not, to explain why she should not hit them with sanctions.

The firms admitted that their clients did not in fact sign these documents.

Morris Bart represented more than 1,300 veterans and service members in the MDL, just over 900 of whom were eligible to receive the settlement, according to the court record. It explained that 15 of their clients "unequivocally" wanted to participate in the settlements but were unable to sign online, according to a filing it submitted on May 15. It said that these 15 clients gave explicit permission to put their names on the releases.

John C. Enochs of Morris Bart further told Law360 on Monday that the firm believed it did not violate the terms of the settlement or Louisiana law when its attorneys signed the documents with the explicit permission of its clients.

"Under Louisiana law, amanuensis signatures are valid, binding, and enforceable," he said in a statement. "While we appreciate that Louisiana law is very much unique from all 49 other states based upon its origins in the French Civil Code, Louisiana's laws are nonetheless entitled to the full faith and credit under Article 4, Section 1, of the United States Constitution. We are very pleased that we were able to work with opposing counsel to satisfactorily resolve the issue, which has been made moot pursuant to the court's order."

Brent Coon represented the 16th person whose signature 3M questioned. In this instance, attorney Brent Coon signed the document with his own name, reasoning that he had power of attorney on behalf of his client. Judge Rodgers considered the question of this plaintiff's release to be moot, since they had been dismissed from the case and were ineligible for the settlement.

Judge Rodgers said she also considered the larger matter to be moot since 3M has agreed to accept 14 new releases from Morris Bart, signed with "wet signatures" by its clients. She said she will set a deadline for the 15th person to file.

Still, the judge reminded the firms that they were outliers in this whole affair.

"This was obviously improper as part of the settlement program (as shown by the 337 firms that did it correctly), given that the releases contain waivers, agreements, representations, and [acknowledgments] that must be personally made by the claimant," she said. "Had the other 337 law firms done the same thing, this settlement program would have been over before it started."

Representatives for 3M and Brent Coon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The servicemembers are represented in the MDL by Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz PLLC, Clark Love & Hutson PLLC, and Seeger Weiss LLP, among others.

3M is represented by Kimberly Branscome, Jay Bhimani, Allison K. Ozurovich, Jonathan Tam, Matthew P. Steinberg and Craig J. Castiglia of Dechert LLP, and Charles F. Beall Jr. and Larry Hill of Moore Hill & Westmoreland PA.

The case is In re: 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, case number 3:19-md-02885, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.