Bayer says three women pursued design defect, fraud and negligence claims at trial after the Supreme Court barred their failure-to-warn claims. The jury found for Monsanto, while a Missouri judge in St. Louis reviews Bayer’s proposed $7.25 billion settlement, Reuters reported.
Bayer, the German drug and crop chemicals group that owns Roundup maker Monsanto, is separately seeking to resolve other Roundup suits through a proposed $7.25 billion settlement, Reuters reported. After the Supreme Court barred state label-warning claims, a Missouri jury heard what Bayer describes as three women’s design defect, fraud and negligence claims. One of the women, Betty Larkin, died before the trial began, Reuters reported, and Courtroom View Network’s index of the trial lists her direct examination as a video recording. On October 29, the jury found for Monsanto, as the index records. Bayer’s statement calls the verdict unanimous and the trial the first Roundup trial since the Supreme Court ruling. For claims teams pricing Roundup suits on the theories left after that ruling, the first jury answer went to the defense.
Reuters reported that Bayer denies the women’s claims and says decades of studies show glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, is safe and does not cause cancer. The plaintiffs, Theresa Aretino, Cynthia Fernandez and Larkin, said they regularly used Roundup and developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. They are outside the proposed settlement.
Subscribe free and the full Missouri panel opens on this device: the verdict count, total damages, median and largest verdict. Plus one courtroom story every Monday.
Before the Supreme Court’s June decision in *Monsanto v. Durnell*, many Roundup suits alleged that the product’s label failed to warn consumers about cancer. As Reuters explained in its report on the trial, the Court blocked those state-law arguments because federal law requires herbicide makers to use the label approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency had concluded that Roundup’s label did not require a cancer warning.
That left a different case for this Missouri jury. Bayer’s statement says the three plaintiffs pursued design defect, fraud and negligence claims at trial. Courtroom View Network’s account says their lawyers accused Monsanto of ignoring potential health risks when formulating Roundup. Monsanto argued that the evidence showed no link between glyphosate exposure and cancer.
Reuters reported another legal disagreement beyond this verdict: Bayer argues that the Supreme Court ruling also forecloses claims such as design defect and negligence, while plaintiffs’ lawyers say those claims survive it. The Aretino jury found for Monsanto on the claims it heard.
Free weekly intelligence for executives responsible for litigation exposure: the named decision-makers, dollar exposure, operating consequence, and next development.
The Missouri 21st Judicial Circuit trial indexed by Courtroom View Network ran from September 29 to October 29 before Judge Brian May in St. Louis County. The index identifies Greg Dovel and Ariel Schneller of Dovel & Luner for Aretino, and Paul Boehm and Michelle Ramirez of Sidley Austin for Monsanto. The index lists the plaintiffs’ direct examination of Dr. Richard DeGrandchamp, a pharmacy and toxicology expert, and Monsanto’s direct examinations of epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Rider and oncologist Dr. Cristian Tomasetti. Its final sessions list Ramirez’s closing, Dovel’s closing and the reading of the verdict. See Missouri verdicts.
Bayer called the verdict unanimous. Reuters, which viewed the trial and verdict through Courtroom View Network, also reported a unanimous finding for Monsanto. Bill Dodero, Bayer’s U.S. general counsel and global head of litigation, said in the company’s statement that plaintiffs pursuing cases after *Durnell* “will face significant challenges” in showing viable claims and proving them in court. Reuters reported that Bayer shares rose 4% to a one-month high on Friday and that Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at Frankfurt-based Union Investment, called the verdict one of the most important trial wins for the company. “Plaintiffs have failed in their new litigation strategy to prove that Bayer had ignored the risks as early as the development stage of glyphosate,” Manns said.
The money sits in a different proceeding. Reuters reported that a Missouri state judge in St. Louis is reviewing Bayer’s proposed $7.25 billion settlement for tens of thousands of other Roundup suits. Bayer faces about 65,000 claims in state and federal courts, according to the same report. The three Aretino plaintiffs are not participating in the proposed deal, Courtroom View Network reported, so their claims went to a jury rather than through the deal.
**P&L translation:** A claims team reserving a Roundup suit outside the proposed $7.25 billion deal now has one jury result on the design defect and negligence theories left after *Durnell*, and it was a defense verdict. Reuters reported through Insurance Journal that Bayer CEO Bill Anderson expects the proposed $7.25 billion settlement before Christmas. “It could be any week now,” Anderson said in a press call. The proposed deal remains under review by a Missouri judge. For Aretino, Fernandez and Larkin, the result on record is the October 29 verdict for Monsanto.
The readiness check has five questions about your reported litigation practices. Use the summary to choose an operating question to explore.
Take the 2-minute readiness check →Free weekly intelligence for executives responsible for litigation exposure: the named decision-makers, dollar exposure, operating consequence, and next development.