Appeals Court Affirms Monsanto Win as Mixed Results in Roundup Trials Continue
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A Missouri appeals court has ruled in favor of Bayer’s subsidiary Monsanto in some of the latest Roundup litigation.
This decision upheld the previous ruling by a circuit court in a case that centered on the cause of Stacey Moore’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which allegedly developed due to his exposure to the popular weed killer.
The appeal of the initial ruling from 2022 stemmed from claims that the circuit court committed multiple errors when it excluded testimony from Moore’s expert witness, didn’t remove a juror who had decades-old ties to Monsanto and overruled Moore’s motion for a new trial.
The appeals court did not find any of these arguments convincing, choosing to uphold the circuit court’s original ruling.
There are over 4,300 Roundup lawsuits currently pending in multidistrict litigation. Despite this loss, plaintiffs have seen some notable wins in state court, including a $2.25 billion verdict for a Pennsylvania man in January that was later reduced to $400 million.
Questions Around Expert’s Knowledge of Roundup Led to Exclusion from Trial
According to court documents, one of the main issues that led to the appeal was the circuit court’s decision to exclude critical expert testimony for Moore’s case after Monsanto claimed they were unqualified to testify.
The expert, a clinical oncologist, was to discuss the potential causal relationship between Roundup and cancer. However, there were concerns that this was outside his area of expertise. Both the circuit court and appeals court determined that his testimony should not be included.
“Medical professionals are not permitted to opine on all things medical simply because they are medical professionals,” the appeals court said in its decision. “Rather, medical professionals, like all other experts, must be qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to give the opinion offered.”
Moore’s appeal attempt had also been built on the circuit court’s refusal to remove a juror who had briefly worked with Monsanto decades before the trial.
That juror had worked for a law firm that helped Monsanto secure immigration paperwork for some of its foreign employees over 30 years ago. However, the juror said he couldn’t remember any of the Monsanto executives he worked with and was impartial in the current case.
The appeals court once again determined that the circuit court had made the proper decision by not striking the juror from the case.
Mixed Results in Roundup Litigation Continue
The latest decision has continued a recent trend of mixed results among Roundup lawsuits, with key verdicts made in favor of both Monsanto and plaintiffs, depending on the case.
Plaintiffs have seen some major wins in state courts within the last year. For example, a San Diego jury initially awarded $332 million to a cancer patient, while a Missouri court awarded $1.56 billion to four plaintiffs claiming Roundup caused them or their spouses to develop cancer. However, the judges later reduced the punitive damage costs, bringing the awards down to $28 million and $611 million, respectively.
Additionally, last month the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in Monsanto’s favor in a key ruling on federal preemption, contradicting and creating a circuit split with two previous rulings.
Bayer has repeatedly pushed for Roundup litigation to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it hopes for a favorable ruling that could end many of the ongoing lawsuits. The company’s five-point plan to manage Roundup litigation lists a positive Supreme Court ruling as its first step.
Editor Lindsay Donaldson contributed to this article.