{"id":403928,"date":"2026-08-11T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403928\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:02:10","slug":"3m-ordered-to-pay-61m-more-to-houston-explosion-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403928\/","title":{"rendered":"3M ordered to pay $61M more to Houston explosion victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This verdict finally gives these families the true accountability and justice they deserve,” said Robert Kwok, lead plaintiffs attorney in the yearslong effort to get restitution<\/a> for the blast that killed three people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

Juries have heard four bellwether cases against 3M focused on different victims of the explosion. The company prevailed in one previous decision in May, when jurors unanimously cleared it of wrongdoing, but lost two others. Before Monday’s verdict, it owed victims more than $156 million.<\/p>\n

“We disagree with the verdict in this case and believe that it is unsupported by the evidence and the law,” a 3M spokesperson said, adding that the company plans to appeal.<\/p>\n

Upwards of 2,000 additional plaintiffs have yet to go to trial in the multi-district litigation. A\u00a0notice on the website<\/a> of law firm Kwok Daniel said attorneys were already preparing for October, when the next 50 community members will take the international company to court.<\/p>\n

Many victims are still reeling from the aftermath of the explosion at Watson Grinding & Manufacturing, a family-owned machine shop, after an overnight leak of flammable propylene gas went undetected. A U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation later said the blast<\/a> “could have been prevented,” pointing in part to the facility’s inoperative gas-detection alarm and shutoff system, which 3M was contracted to inspect and maintain.<\/p>\n

The federal agency did not name 3M, instead focusing on the culpability of Watson Grinding’s owners, but attorneys argued that the detection system failures were due in part to the corporation’s negligence. While the now-bankrupt Watson Grinding<\/a> and Watson Valve Services Inc. previously settled with victims<\/a> over their responsibility for the blast, 3M did not settle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“3M’s failure included actual knowledge that the Watson gas detection system was defective for years leading up to this explosion,” Kwok said in a Monday news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, 3M has a right to appeal the decisions and has not yet paid out previous verdicts.<\/p>\n

Kwok Daniel’s latest notice to the thousands of people impacted by the explosion’s sweeping radius said each plaintiff had a right to see 3M in court. It added that the firm would be bringing their cases before juries every three months, in groups of 50 randomly assigned by the court.<\/p>\n

They expect the process will take at least a decade to complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“This verdict finally gives these families the true accountability and justice they deserve,” said Robert Kwok, lead plaintiffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-403928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}