Paraquat Class Action Lawsuit For Individuals Diagnosed With Parkinson’s Disease Certified in Canada

Canadian court determined a Paraquat class action for Parkinson’s disease claims will be less of a burden on the judicial system and the parties than resolving individual lawsuits.

A class action lawsuit has been certified in Canada to pursue damages for anyone in that country who developed Parkinson’s disease after using the paraquat-based weed killer Gramoxone, involving claims similar to those presented in thousands of individual Paraquat lawsuits currently being pursued throughout the U.S. court system.

Wayne Gionet filed the lawsuit in August 2022, alleging that decades of using Syngenta’s Gramoxone herbicide led to his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, maintaining that the company should be held responsible for failing to adequately warn users of the weed killer about the potential risks of neurological damage from paraquat.

The British Columbia Supreme Court certified the Paraquat class action lawsuit on August 9, just months after Gionet passed away, allowing the case to move forward on behalf of anyone diagnosed with the condition after handling any Gramoxone products in Canada at any time after July 1, 1963.

Paraquat Exposure Linked to Parkinson’s Disease

Paraquat was originally developed in the 1950s by Imperial Chemical Industries, PLC, which is a legacy company of Syngenta, and the weed killer was first marketed under the brand name Gramoxone in the 1960s. However, over the subsequent decades Syngenta sold Paraquat formulations under a variety of names.

Although it has been widely used for decades, and is already heavily restricted in the United States due to the risk of Paraquat toxicity if even a small amount of the weed killer is accidentally ingested, former users diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease now claim that users were not adequately warned about the long-term side effects that may result from simply handling, mixing or spraying the product.

The complaints in the U.S. and Canada point to a number of studies that have found a two- to five-fold increased risk for individuals regularly exposed to Paraquat in the agricultural industry, compared to individuals who do not have occupational use of the weed killer.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that affects about 1 million Americans, and at least 6 million other people worldwide. Symptoms can include tremors, uncontrollable movements, shaking, difficulty talking, balance and coordination problems, which typically begin gradually and worsen over time.

The condition causes nerve cell damage in the brain, which results in dropping dopamine levels. While Parkinson’s medications can help control the symptoms, there is currently no known cure for the disease.

Paraquat Parkinson’s Disease Lawsuit Certified

In its decision to approve the Paraquat class action lawsuit, the British Columbia Supreme Court indicates plaintiffs submitted evidence from similar cases being pursued in the U.S., including internal documents from decades ago, linking paraquat to Parkinson’s disease.

“The proposed litigation plan addresses the requisite issues and nuances in this litigation, outlining each step following certification through to a final distribution report. It provides a roadmap for: (i) a notice plan providing a reasonable method of notifying the Class Members of certification and of opt-out opportunities; (ii) a litigation schedule; (iii) a procedure for discovery; (iv) the exchange of expert reports; (v) a procedure for the common issues trial; and (vi) a procedure for the determination of individual issues, among other things,” the Court said.

The Court ruled that a class action would be less of a burden on all parties than pursuing the litigation as individual lawsuits, which is how the litigation is being handled in the United States.

U.S. Paraquat Parkinson’s Disease Lawsuits

There are currently at least 6,000 individual product liability lawsuits pending in the U.S. federal court system against the manufacturers of the controversial weed killer, each raising similar allegations that Syngenta and Chevron failed to adequately disclose the link between Paraquat and Parkinson’s disease.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in the claims, each of the individual Paraquat lawsuits have been centralized before U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois since June 2021, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings, 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 testifying at trial, leaving those claimants without any means to establish that their Parkinson’s disease diagnosis was caused by Paraquat.

Earlier this month, Judge Rosenstengle identified a group of 10 Paraquat lawsuits for a second round of bellwether trial discovery, which will move forward with different expert witness testimony.

While the outcome of those early trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs, they will be closely watched to gauge the average Paraquat lawsuit payout awarded by juries. Following bellwether trials before Judge Rosenstengel, if the manufacturers fail to negotiate Paraquat settlements or otherwise resolve the litigation, hundreds of individuals’ claims may be remanded to U.S. District Courts nationwide for individual trial dates in the future.