A DFW area lawyer is accusing defendants in an herbicide injury litigation case of trying to game the legal system.
Attorney Majed Nachawati represents 4,000 plaintiffs In re: Bayer Roundup Products Liability Litigation, who allege that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed-killer Roundup, causes Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL), according to a press release.
Nachawati’s case is pending in the Northern District of California for coordinated proceedings before District Judge Vince Chhabria, who presides over larger cancer-related Multidistrict Litigation (MDL).
“Monsanto (the maker of Roundup) was trying to game the United States judicial system with Gilmore v Monsanto Company in a race to the bottom and pay these injured plaintiffs and these consumers nothing and to eliminate their future liability,” alleged Nachawati, a partner in the Fears Nachawati Law Firm. “It’s unacceptable and to us, it’s potentially sanctionable.”
Scott Gilmore v. Monsanto Company would have released economic loss claims as part of a $45 million settlement, according to Nachawati.
“What could have happened is personal injury could be more constricted in other cases in the way it’s defined so that Monsanto could say that personal injury claims for mental anguish, pain, and suffering are preserved but the economic loss claims associated with those aren’t preserved,” he said.
The alleged false-advertising legal action against Roundup, which is used to kill weeds growing among crops, was proceeding as a standalone case before the US District Court in Delaware.
“If you represent Monsanto and you have a federal class action filed in Delaware against you, it should be transferred,” Nachawati told Dallas Express. “Or at least the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation should be put on notice that there’s a potentially related case out there that could affect the rights of the cases pending in another court.”
Gilmore v. Monsanto Company was granted transfer to the Northern District of California by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) last month.
“We are persuaded that Gilmore involves common questions of fact with the actions transferred to MDL No. 2741, and that transfer under 28 USC § 1407 will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation,” wrote the judicial panel in their Oct. 8 order.
As previously reported, District Judge Vince Chhabria has twice rejected settlements proposed by Monsanto, which became a subsidiary of the German chemical company Bayer in 2018 after Bayer acquired Monsanto for $63 billion.
“Judge Chhabria has the experience and knowledge to handle these lawsuits fairly, and Monsanto is scared of that,” Nachawati added. “This gambit shows the lengths that this company will go to limit access to justice for those sickened by exposure to Roundup.”
In one of the offers, Judge Chhabria rejected, Bayer CEO Werner Baumann had tried to settle the inherited litigation with $2 billion.
“They tried to get out of futures class action liability for $2 billion and this is another way of them trying to limit future liability by trying to pay out up to $45 million,” Nachawati alleged.