The Legal Examiner Affiliate Network The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner search instagram avvo phone envelope checkmark mail-reply spinner error close The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner
Skip to main content

On Oct. 6, Bayer Health released a statement announcing that “the Oct. 15, 2019 trial date for Winston v. Monsanto in St. Louis City has been postponed.” The trial was set to include 14 plaintiffs that were diagnosed with cancer after using Monsanto’s glyphosate- based weed killer Roundup; Monsanto was acquired by Bayer in 2018. Since acquiring Monsanto, Bayer has become the target of over 18,400 lawsuits filed by plaintiffs who claim that long-term Roundup exposure gave them cancer.

A status conference to reevaluate the case has been set for Feb. 10, 2020, according to a court document from the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, but the trial itself has yet to be rescheduled. With no other Roundup trials coming in 2019, Bayer plans on shifting its focus to appealing the three completed Roundup trials, all of which resulted in enormous monetary awards for plaintiffs: “with the change in the trial schedule and no trial dates set through the rest of the year, the appeals of the three completed trials will be a significant focus of the litigation in the months ahead.”

The delay of the trial indicates that discussions toward a settlement may be progressing forward. The announcement came as mediator Ken Feinberg reportedly attempts to negotiate a settlement between Bayer and the thousands of U.S. plaintiffs. The cost for settling all U.S. Roundup cases, which have already erased more than $30 billion in Bayer’s market value, has had estimates ranging from $2.5 billion up to $20 billion.

Plaintiffs in the now-postponed St. Louis Trial allege that Roundup’s manufacture and design are defective, and that Roundup is directly responsible for their cancer diagnoses. These allegations are similar to those of plaintiffs in the first three trials, with one California jury ruling in August 2018 that Monsanto should have warned consumers of the health risks associated with Roundup exposure. Despite this, along with the mounting number of cancer lawsuits, Bayer has repeatedly denied Roundup’s link to cancer and other adverse health effects.

If you or a loved one has developed cancer after being exposed to glyphosate, please call Pogust Millrood toll free at (888) 348-6787 or direct to our Pennsylvania office at (610) 941-4204 to see if you are entitled to seek damages.

Comments for this article are closed.