A planned fourth bellwether trial against 3M brought by a group of 30 plaintiffs who were injured in the fatal Watson Grinding and Manufacturing explosion that rocked a West Houston neighborhood in January 2020 will proceed as the judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation planned.
Last week, 3M had asked the First Court of Appeals in Houston for a variety of relief: staying the fourth trial, slated to begin July 13, while its appeal of an earlier jury verdict proceeded, or, alternatively, ordering a 60-day continuance and limiting the number of plaintiffs in the case to no more than 10.
On Thursday, a three-justice panel, in a succinct three-sentence opinion, rejected 3M’s request.
“Relator 3M Company has filed a petition for writ of mandamus complaining of the MDL pretrial court’s orders,” it reads. “We deny mandamus relief. We dismiss any pending motions as moot.”
On June 26, in a separate order, the panel also denied 3M’s motion for a stay.
Robert Kwok of Kwok Daniel, who represents 12 of the 30 plaintiffs in the fourth bellwether case, told The Texas Lawbook Thursday that he was pleased with the decision.
“Our clients are happy with the court’s decision and look forward to finally getting their day in court,” he said. “It’s been a long journey for them, six-and-a-half years of waiting.”
Counsel for 3M did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
So far, as Kwok described it, the “series” of trials between the plaintiffs who suffered damages in the explosion is 2-1 in the plaintiffs’ favor.
“And we expect it to go to 3-1,” he said, referencing the upcoming trial.
The lawsuits filed on behalf of more than 2,600 plaintiffs in the wake of the explosion were consolidated into multidistrict litigation for pretrial proceedings.
The first set of cases set for trial from the MDL were brought by the families of the three individuals who died in the explosion, but they settled before trial. The second group was made up of five plaintiffs seriously injured in the explosion.
That trial ended in June 2025 with a $37.9 million verdict against 3M and Teledyne-Detcon. 3M is the former parent company of Detcon, and Teledyne purchased Detcon from 3M.
The second trial ended in November 2025, when a Harris County jury returned a $118 million verdict against 3M for seven other plaintiffs who were impacted by the explosion.
3M won a complete defense verdict in the third trial.
The plaintiffs in each case allege 3M’s failure to properly service a gas detection system at the Watson Grinding facility caused the disaster.
Experts concluded the cause of the 2020 explosion that killed two employees and one nearby resident was an undetected propylene gas leak. About 600 gallons of the gas filled the Watson Grinding facility overnight and into the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2020. The gas ignited at 4:24 a.m., when an employee entered the building and flipped on a light switch.
The massive explosion could be felt and heard for miles.
The company, which employed about 130 people by 2020, specialized in applying thermal spray coatings to metal parts used in corrosive environments, such as fracking, offshore oil and gas operations, refining, power generation and aerospace. Propylene gas was used in the application process.
Watson Grinding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 6, 2020, and was later liquidated.
In this fourth trial, the group of 30 plaintiffs, some of whom lived as close as a quarter-mile from Watson Grinding, allege the blast caused a variety of injuries, from hearing loss to more serious injuries that required surgery.
“It’s concussive force injuries that our experts will prove up,” Kwok said. “My personal home is six or seven miles away, on the other side of I-10, and the force of this blew open the door to my garage and set off my alarm at the same time.”
MDL Judge Mark Davidson in March implemented a system of randomized selection of plaintiffs for this case and will employ the same system for each trial moving forward. In the earlier cases, each side got to select the plaintiffs.
In 3M’s petition, the company argued the “sharp spike in volume” of plaintiffs for the fourth trial “is unmanageable” and gave it just 28 days to “complete all necessary discovery for triple the number of plaintiffs.”
“That timeline is not feasible,” the petition reads.
3M told the court it should find that “setting bellwether trial so close together that it deprives a party of a reasonable time for discovery is an abuse of discretion.”
Judge Davidson has also decided each future bellwether trial will contain 50 plaintiffs, according to court documents.
After the jury returned the complete defense win for 3M in the third trial in May, its lawyers sought a continuance, telling the court the July 13 trial setting “conflicted with a timely filed vacation letter and that 3M needed 60 additional days for individualized discovery,” while also asking the court to reduce the number of plaintiffs in the fourth trial to 10 or fewer.
The lead trial lawyer for 3M, Zandra Foley of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, serves as the director of the International Association of Defense Counsel’s Annual Trial Academy, where she also teaches each summer. She had filed the vacation letter to ensure she could do so again this year.
“Ms. Foley serves annually on the faculty of this program, held at the University of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice School of Law, and she has never had a properly noticed vacation letter disregarded — until now,” the petition reads.
The trial, expected to last two to four weeks, will proceed before Harris County District Judge Kristen Brauchle Hawkins.
Chief Justice Terry Adams and Justices Veronica Rivas-Molloy and Kristin Guiney sat on the panel.
3M is represented on appeal by Constance Pfeiffer, Reagan W. Simpson, Daniel N. Nightingale and W. Seth Cook of Yetter Coleman. The company’s trial lawyers are Zandra Foley and Kevin Risley of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons.
The plaintiffs are represented by Robert Kwok, J. Ryan Loya, William Hoke, Ranny Sawaf and Marcos Cardenas of Kwok Daniel, William Moye of Moye Law Firm, Ryan Pigg of The Buzbee Law Firm, Adam Lewis of Arnold & Itkin, Eric Dick of Dick Law Firm, Adam Anthony of The Anthony Law Firm and Douglas Alexander, Marcy Hogan Greeg, Anna Baker and Hannah Roblyer of Alexander Dubose & Jefferson.
The case number is 01-26-00648-CV.