Court Selects 10 Paraquat Lawsuits For Second Round of Bellwether Trial Discovery

MDL judge dismissed first group of Paraquat bellwether lawsuits in April, after excluding plaintiffs’ expert witnesses from testifying at trial.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all Paraquat lawsuits has selected a new group of 10 bellwether claims to go through case-specific discovery and preparations for a series of test trials, after a first group of four bellwether cases were all dismissed earlier this year.

There are currently 6,000 product liability lawsuits pending in the federal court system against the manufacturers of the controversial weedkiller, each raising similar allegations that Syngenta and Chevron failed to adequately disclose the link between Paraquat and Parkison’s disease.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in claims brought by individuals diagnosed with the devastating neurological disease after routinely spraying, mixing or transporting the weedkiller, the Paraquat lawsuits have been centralized before U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois since June 2021, as part of a federal MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

To help the parties evaluate how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout various claims, the Court previously established a “bellwether” process where a small group of Paraquat lawsuits were prepared for trial. However, Judge Rosenstengel dismissed those cases in April, after excluding the plaintiffs’ designated expert witnesses from testify at trial, leaving those claimants without any means to establish that their Parkinson’s disease diagnosis was caused by Paraquat.

Following the dismissal of the first batch of proposed Paraquat bellwether cases, Judge Rosenstengel expressed the Court’s intention to “expeditiously identify a new set of trial cases and set a tight schedule for limited discovery and trial,” to determine whether other experts can offer reliable testimony establishing causation.

On Tuesday, a court order (PDF) was issued announcing the selection of the 10 new Paraquat lawsuits that will undergo case-specific discovery as part of a new bellwether trial pool.

The parties have until August 20, 2024 to voluntarily dismiss any of the selected cases without prejudice, which will give the court time to select a replacement claim. Once the final group is confirmed, plaintiffs selected will have until September 3 to provide defendants with a completed Fact Sheet, with depositions taking place by November 25. The order calls for the parties to submit a one-page summary to the Court on each selected case by December 16, 2024.

The selected cases all include claims that Paraquat exposure led to serious health consequences. One complaint, filed by Susan Benavidez (PDF) of Illinois, indicates that she used Paraquat for 27 years, leading to a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2018. Another claim filed by Michael Peek (PDF), of Alabama, makes almost identical claims that he developed Parkinson’s disease after being exposed to Paraquat for years while working in Indiana.

It is believed these lawsuits rely on different expert witness testimony than the previously dismissed claims, utilizing different methods to establish the link between Paraquat and Parkinson’s disease.

In addition, a large number of Paraquat cases are currently pending in various different state courts, which have different evidentiary standards for the admissibility of expert witness testimony. Following the bellwether trials, if Syngenta and Chevron are unable to negotiate a global Paraquat settlement agreement, thousands of claims are likely to be remanded back to their originating districts for individual trial dates.