“Glaring Flaws”: U.S. District Court Rejects Proposed Class Action Settlement of Future Roundup Claims

In a six-page order focusing on “the most glaring flaws,” U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco today denied preliminary approval to a proposed class action settlement of all future claims against Monsanto by injured people charging that Roundup caused their cancer – including claims by people who have no injury or cancer now and may not have any for decades. Bailey Glasser had filed an amici curiae (“friend of the court”) brief and a supplemental brief opposing the proposed settlement on behalf of 93 law firms, 167 attorneys, and National Trial Lawyers (NTL) President Lisa Blue, individually and on behalf of the NTL’s 14,000 members.

Bailey Glasser’s Benjamin L. Bailey in Charleston, WV, and Joshua I. Hammack in Washington, DC, were co-authors of the briefs.

The order says, “In sum, the settlement proposed by these attorneys would accomplish a lot for Monsanto. It would substantially diminish the company’s settlement exposure and litigation exposure at the back end, eliminating punitive damages and potentially increasing its chances of winning trials on compensatory damages. It would accomplish far less for the Roundup users who have not been diagnosed with (non-Hodgkins lymphoma) NHL—and not nearly as much as the attorneys pushing this deal contend.”

To see the order, click here.