Monsanto Appeals First Federal Roundup Verdict
Law.com | By Amanda Bronstad
Monsanto Co. has asked a federal appeals court to reverse a verdict over its herbicide Roundup that it said “defies both expert regulatory judgment and sound science.”
In a Dec. 13 brief, former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman and other lawyers for Monsanto, owned by Bayer AG, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse the $80 million verdict, later reduced to $25.3 million. They cited federal preemption, ”serious legal errors” on causation, and a lack of Monsanto’s alleged “reprehensible conduct” justifying punitive damages. The trial, according to Monsanto, was the first in federal court, where 5,000 Roundup lawsuits are pending.
“This appeal has the potential to shape how every subsequent Roundup case is litigated,” wrote Monsanto’s legal team, led by Waxman, of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. “That verdict defies both expert regulatory judgment and sound science.”