Article

by Carey Gillam

ayer’s proposed $7.25 billion class action settlement of Roundup litigation received preliminary approval from a Missouri court on Wednesday, rejecting opposition from a group of lawyers representing roughly 20,000 plaintiffs who claim they developed cancer from using the company’s herbicide products.

The decision from Missouri Circuit Court Judge Timothy Boyer allows for the start of a nationwide program to notify people about the class action settlement plan. Bayer, which bought Roundup maker in 2018, must deposit $500 million into a settlement fund within 10 days as part of the plan.

The decision stays all Roundup lawsuits in Missouri pending a final settlement order and sets a “fairness hearing” on the settlement proposal for July 9.

Christopher Seeger, proposed class counsel in the Roundup settlement, hailed the court decision as “an important step for Roundup cancer victims who have been waiting more than a decade for a just resolution.”

In a statement, Seeger said the settlement provides the “best path to compensation” for plaintiffs as Bayer threatens to put Monsanto into bankruptcy and the US Supreme Court has set an April 27 hearing to take up Bayer’s arguments that key claims in Roundup lawsuits filed around the nation should be barred.

Bayer has been fending off litigation brought by close to 200,000 people suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) they blame on exposure to Roundup and other Monsanto glyphosate-based herbicide brands since buying Monsanto in 2018. So far, the litigation has cost the company more than $11 billion in settlements and jury verdicts. At the core of those lawsuits are claims that the company failed to warn users of the risk of cancer as seen in scientific research.

Bayer maintains its glyphosate herbicides do not cause cancer. But the company is hoping the class action settlement proposal could help bring the litigation to a close.

If approved, the proposed settlement would cover plaintiffs who were exposed to Roundup products and either currently are suffering from NHL or receive a diagnosis of NHL in the next several years.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, people suffering from cancer attributed to use of the company’s herbicides could receive $10,000 to $165,000 on average, far lower payouts than the millions of dollars juries have awarded to many plaintiffs.

A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs sought to intervene in Bayer’s $7.25 billion proposed class action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the settlement deal will not be fair to cancer victims.

The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal on Feb. 24, saying the deal appears “unprecedented” and raises multiple “red flags”.

In ruling to let the proposed class action settlement plan go forward, Judge Boyer said in his decision that he had reviewed the concerns from the opposing law firms but said there is ample time for consideration of those concerns before a final ruling is made.