Justices send 3M case back to lower court

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that a lower court has more work to do in the state's lawsuit against 3M.

State officials sued 3M in December, 2010, over the company's manufacture and disposal of perfluorinated chemicals.

Found throughout the environment, perfluorinated chemicals are used by industries and in household products. Ultimately they find their way to wastewater treatment plants, and in the Twin Cities metro area, end up in the Mississippi River. The chemicals build up in the tissues of humans and fish and are suspected of being carcinogenic.

The suit has been at a standstill for the past two years as the two sides fight over representation. Attorneys for the Covington and Burling law firm previously worked for 3M on related issues, but later began representing the state of Minnesota in its lawsuit against the company.

3M argued the firm had confidential information about the company and should be disqualified from the case. That argument came after the two parties had already produced six million pages of documents and deposed more than 70 witnesses.

A district court ruled in favor of 3M but now the Minnesota Supreme Court is sending the case back. Supreme Court justices said that, in siding with 3M, the lower court failed to consider several relevant issues.

William A. Brewer III, a lawyer for the company, said he looks forward to presenting facts and evidence to the trial court to support its conclusion that Covington and Burling should be disqualified.

"Beyond the substantial process that was made today toward the ultimate resolution of the disqualification proceedings, the evidence in the record reveals that the state's environmental lawsuit lacks merit," Brewer said. "3M remains eager to return to the underlying case."

3M was once the sole producer of perfluorinated chemicals, but halted their use and production in 2002 after the compounds turned up in the blood samples of workers.

Ben Wogsland, a spokesman for Minnesota Attorney General's Office, said the state also is ready to return to court.

"3M polluted the waters, and this case is about getting the company to make it right. 3M has stalled out going to trial for two years," Wogsland said. "We look forward to getting back before the district court for further proceedings in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court, and then refocusing on the substance of the litigation."