Roundup Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Lawsuit Remanded From MDL for Trial

MDL Judge indicates that although Bayer is usually settling Roundup lawsuits just before they are remanded for trial, a claim filed by a Washington woman who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is ready to go before a jury.

Over the past decade, Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary have faced tens of thousands of Roundup lawsuits, alleging that the widely used weed killer caused the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other forms of cancer.

At its peak, the Roundup cancer litigation consisted of more than 120,000 product liability lawsuits, each alleging that the manufacturers failed to provide adequate warnings that the active ingredient, glyphosate, carried potential cancer risks.

Although the manufacturers have been hit with a number of massive jury verdicts, and agreed to pay more than $10 billion in Roundup settlements, many of the plaintiffs have rejected offers and are still awaiting their day in court.

Roundup MDL Lawsuits Have Been Prepared in Waves

The litigation began following a report by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in March 2015, which identified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen.”

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints brought throughout the federal court system, a Roundup MDL (multidistrict litigation) was established in 2016, centralizing the non-Hodgkins lymphoma claims before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Early in the litigation, Judge Chhabria scheduled a series of early bellwether test trials in the MDL, to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that would be repeated throughout the federal court system.

After the first federal Roundup trial went before a jury in March 2019, resulting in an initial award of $80 million before it was reduced by Judge Chhabria, the court instituted a plan to prepare large “waves” of claims for trial in the MDL, before returning them back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for individual jury trials. However, the manufacturer has settled many of the Roundup cases either right before or after final pretrial rulings were issued, which would have allowed the trial to move forward.

In a court order (PDF) issued on July 21, Judge Chhabria announced that a claim originally filed by Joselyn Ethel Kooi more than five years ago is now ready for trial, returning the case to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Judge Chhabria noted in the order that Kooi’s case was part of the eighth wave of Roundup non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma lawsuits being prepared for remand back to their originating courts for trial, highlighting how Roundup settlement agreements have been reached in other claims before he could recommend remand to the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

“Monsanto does not consent to cases from other districts being tried here in the Northern District of California. Thus far, most cases in a given wave have settled prior to summary judgment. Occasionally, a summary judgment ruling is necessary, but then the cases settle shortly after I rule, and before I can suggest that the case be remanded for trial.”

-Judge Vince Chhabria, Suggestion of Remand to Transferer Court

The MDL Judge pointed out that discovery is complete in the Roundup lawsuit filed by Kooi, and that he has already rejected Monsanto’s attempts to exclude her expert witness from testifying. Therefore, the case is now ready for trial.

When ruling on any further pretrial motions, the trial judge appointed to preside over the case in the Western District of Washington has been urged to examine the MDL rulings in the first bellwether trial held in 2019, which allowed the jury to consider evidence that Monsanto was more concerned with tamping down safety concerns and controlling public opinion, than it was with ensuring the weed killer was safe.

Roundup Lawsuit Supreme Court Petition

Bayer has also fared poorly in a number of Roundup lawsuits that went to trial in various different state courts over the past few years. Since it has not been able to consistently defend the safety of Roundup at trial, its latest defense strategy involves an attempt to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to provide the herbicide manufacturer immunity against future lawsuits.

A petition for review was filed earlier this year in an appeal stemming from a Missouri jury verdict from October 2023, which awarded John Durnell $1.25 million for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, arguing that the EPA approval of the weed killer label should preempt any state law-based failure to warn claims.

This is Bayer’s third attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the litigation. The company petitioned the Court to review another Roundup trial defeat, involving an $87 million verdict awarded to a California couple, Alva and Alberta Pilliod in May 2019. However, the Supreme Court refused to review the case in June 2022. 

This followed a previous refusal to review another Roundup appeal in March 2019. The Court provided no comment about the reasons why the petitions were rejected in either case, which is not uncommon.

Bayer Seeks State Immunity for Roundup Lawsuits

While Bayer waits for a response from the Supreme Court, the drug manufacturer is also pressuring states to pass legislation granting the company immunity from future Roundup lawsuits at the state level. Its efforts have already resulted in liability protections in Georgia and North Carolina, with similar measures being considered by several other states.

If these efforts do not pan out, reports indicate Bayer is considering seeking liability protection for Monsanto through the U.S. bankruptcy process, even though the company has billions of funds on hand to deal with the litigation.

To cut off the potential for future claims, Bayer also announced that it would reformulate Roundup in 2021, with plans to remove the active ingredient glyphosate from consumer versions of the weed killer. However, without additional settlements, the company is likely to continue facing new lawsuits for years, as former users develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma following use of the old Roundup formulations.