DISCLAIMER:  Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
                        as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.

201635P.pdf   10/20/2021  Christopher Graves  v.  3M Company
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  20-1635
                          and No:  20-2545 etc.
   U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota   
[PUBLISHED] Loken, Author, with Kelly and Erickson, Circuit Judges Civil Case - Federal Jurisdiction. A separate group of employees employed by civilian and military contractors who used the Combat Arms Version 2 (CAEv2) earplugs, filed suit in state court asserting failure-to-warn claims against manufacturer 3M. 3M removed the action to federal court, asserting federal officer defenses under 28 U.S.C. sec. 1442(a)(1). 3M appeals the district court's remand orders. 3M failed to establish it was "acting under" a federal officer or agency in developing and disseminating warnings and instructions for its commercial CAEv2 earplugs, and thus remand of the claims of employees who acquired earplugs in the commercial marketplace is affirmed. As for the plaintiffs that worked for defense contractors and received earplugs from the military, 3M made a requisite showing of a colorable federal contractor defense showing that 3M complied with the government's direction to provide earplugs to the military in bulk without instructions, as the military would produce its own instructions. The order remanding the claims brought by those who acquired them through the military is reversed.