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.”
