A RICO case against a Pike County attorney and two others over allegedly fraudulent black lung cases will move forward after a federal judge denied motions to dismiss this week.
In a Sept. 30 ruling, Judge Robert Wier noted that while mask maker 3M Company faces a high bar to prove its claims of racketeering, fraud and civil conspiracy, discovery in the case can proceed.
The Minnesota-based manufacturer filed the lawsuit last year in the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleging Pikeville attorney Glenn Hammond, along with attorneys Michael Martin and Johnny Givens, worked together to solicit “cookie-cutter” claims from former miners and their families.
Those coal miners allegedly wore 3M masks, but still breathed in coal dust and were later diagnosed with black lung, according to 22 lawsuits filed on their behalf. Some of the 850 miners involved in those lawsuits brought fraudulent claims at the behest of the three attorneys, 3M alleges.
“Defendants solicited coal miners to join cookie-cutter complaints claiming that 3M was to blame for the black lung disease and other injuries allegedly sustained in coal mines and coached them to lie about those allegations,” the company wrote in its June 2025 civil suit.
There is no cure for black lung disease, which is typically caused by inhaling fine particulate dust in and around coal mines. Despite some regulations to attempt to prevent black lung, rates among Appalachian coal miners are now at their highest levels since the 1970s, an August NPR investigation found.
In the RICO case, attorneys for the manufacturer allege the group “banded together” to increase the volume of dust mask claims against the company, driving up any potential settlement.
3M also alleges one of the attorneys mistakenly texted a company attorney stating some of the claims were "frivolous."
Attorneys for the manufacturer claim the two participating lawyers ultimately attempted to distance themselves from Hammond, and in turn Hammond concealed some evidence of the allegedly fraudulent dust claims.
In response to 3M’s lawsuit, Hammond and the others asked the federal court to dismiss the case.
Wier declined to do so this week.
“The Court has many questions about the ultimate factual viability of the case but will not, at this stage and on this record, dismiss it,” Wier wrote.
In his opinion, he did dismiss 3M’s claims of civil conspiracy and fraud, however.
Neither 3M’s attorneys nor Kentucky defendant Glenn Hammond immediately responded to WEKU’s request for comment on the case.
