Law.com
Serious Misconduct’ From Monsanto Lawyer Prompts Mistrial in Chicago Roundup Case
A spokesperson for Monsanto said in a statement that the company believes the “cross-examination regarding risks factors for [the plaintiffs’] injury was appropriate given the evidentiary record in this case.” The spokesperson called the plaintiffs’ decision to seek a mistrial “unusual and telling.”
December 2 2024
In this post, our Roundup lawyers will give you:
- an update on where things stand in the Roundup class action lawsuit in September 2024
- the likely direction the Roundup litigation will likely take moving forward and
- the expected future settlement amounts in the Bayer Roundup lawsuit (Phase 2)
54,000 Roundup Cases Left… and Counting
As of October 2024, Monsanto has reached settlement agreements in nearly 100,000 Roundup lawsuits. Monsanto paid approximately $11 billion. Bayer has accomplished this by negotiating block settlement arrangements with plaintiffs’ lawyers who have significant cases in the litigation… and by settling with plaintiffs before trial.
Although these settlements account for nearly two-thirds of all Roundup claims, Monsanto estimates that 54,000 active Roundup lawsuits remain. Most lawsuits have been filed in state court, but over 4,000 claims in the MDL Roundup class action lawsuit are still pending in California.
New Roundup lawsuits continue to be filed regularly. Our attorneys receive daily calls and online contact forms from Roundup victims with NHL. You can reach us at 800-553-8082.
December 2, 2024 – MDL Case Count Update
November saw a modest increase in the Roundup MDL, with 18 new cases added, a 0.4% increase, bringing the total to 4,373 pending cases. At some point, the MDL should be disbanded and these cases should all be sent out for trial in their local districts. As we have been saying for year, all of the energy in this litigation is in state court where lawsuits are being tried.
November 20, 2024 – RFK Jr. and Roundup
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a vocal critic of Roundup. In 2018, he was involved with the legal team representing Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who alleged that prolonged exposure to Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Johnson’s case is widely regarded as the starting point for this litigation. A jury awarded Johnson $289 million, finding that Monsanto acted with “malice and oppression” by failing to warn consumers about the potential health risks of its product.
After the verdict, Kennedy remarked, “This jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and did it with reckless disregard for human life.” He called the decision a strong message to Monsanto’s boardroom. You like him or hate him. But Kennedy is clearly on the right side of this issue. (Here is a Facebook post from him. )
If Kennedy is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, his leadership could meaningfully influence the Roundup litigation. True to his history, he is likely to advocate for stricter oversight of herbicides and pesticides, potentially pushing federal agencies like the EPA or FDA to re-evaluate the safety of glyphosate. Any regulatory action questioning or limiting glyphosate’s use could strengthen plaintiffs’ claims, supporting arguments that Roundup is hazardous and inadequately regulated.
Such a shift in regulatory and political climate—especially under a conservative administration—might force Bayer to do a reset on its jumbled legal strategy and reconsider a more aggressive pursuit of a global Roundup settlement.
November 16, 2024 – Monsanto Win in Philadelphia
Monsanto won the Womack trial in Philadelphia yesterday. Good plaintiffs’ lawyers trying the case, the last verdict was $78 million…it was a good recipe for victory. But we are not going to win every trial in this litigation. This was a tougher case with only ten residential uses of the product starting in 2015.
November 1, 2024 – 6 New Cases Added to MDL
Just six new cases were added to the Roundup MDL over the month of October. There are now 4,355 pending cases in the MDL.
At this point, there could be some wisdom in the MDL judge just sending these cases back to their local districts for trial. Not much is being accomplished in the MDL
October 24, 2024 – Massachusetts State Court Follows 3rd Circuit
A Massachusetts state court has found that federal law preempts a plaintiff’s claims that Monsanto failed to warn about the potential dangers of its weed killer, Roundup. Plaintiff’s design defects remain but it certainly a blow to lose the failure to warn claim.
The ruling mirrors the 3rd Circuit’s opinion in Schaffner v. Monsanto. The fear is that this case gives judges who are inclined to look for ways to protect corporation like Monsanto a legal leg to stand on and you will see more opinion like this.
October 21, 2024 – Roundup Skin Cancer Lawsuit Fails
In a new ruling Friday, the Fifth Circuit upheld summary judgment in favor of Monsanto in a lawsuit filed by the family of a doctor who they claimed died of skin cancer due to exposure to Roundup.
There was a statute of limitations problem. Louisiana has a draconian one-year deadline to file. The court also excluded the family’s expert witness, finding his causation methods unreliable. The expert’s reliance on a study showing arsenic in some Roundup bottles was criticized for failing to prove a direct link to the doctor’s exposure or provide sufficient evidence to support his cancer diagnosis.
I have no idea if skin cancer can be related to Roundup. I have not heard that. I have heard, besides NHL, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, Parkinson’s, reproductive issues such as hormone disruption and fertility problems, as well as liver and kidney damage observed in some animal studies. Other potential health effects include respiratory irritation, particularly for agricultural workers, and an increased risk of birth defect.
Can any of these be proven in court? Probably not. But it seems pretty unlikely that NHL is the only health complication these chemicals cause.
