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In the nationwide legal battle between pesticide maker Syngenta and thousands of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease that they blame on exposure to paraquat weed killer, plaintiffs are dying faster than they can get to trial, according to a court filing made this week by lawyers frustrated by repeated delays in the cases.
“A majority of bellwether plaintiffs have now died,” plaintiffs’ attorneys stated in the June 2 filing in California’s Contra Costa County Superior Court, which is overseeing coordinated proceedings for more than 400 cases against Syngenta. “Years have passed since the close of discovery for the first round of bellwether cases. It is time to move these cases toward trial expediently.”
Plaintiffs in the cases all allege that chronic exposure to paraquat caused them to develop the degenerative brain disease, and that Syngenta knew of the risks and failed to warn its customers.
Several trials have been set to start in the last two years, but in each case, Syngenta has successfully obtained delays. The company settled one large multi-plaintiff case set to go to trial in 2021 for more than $187 million. Syngenta is now trying to finalize a sweeping settlement to put an end to the litigation.
Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Edward Weil said in a court hearing on Wednesday that the first availability for a month-long trial is in early April.
That may be too late for plaintiff Richard Clasen, according to lawyer Curtis Hoke. Clasen is one of four plaintiffs who had been selected for a group of bellwether cases, or test cases that would go to trial before others. Two of those four plaintiffs have since died, and 73-year-old Clasen is deteriorating.
Clasen has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s dementia with increasingly severe hallucinations and delusions, and has been hospitalized in recent months due to falls and other health problems, according to Hoke.
“It appears that his medical condition is worsening very quickly. We want to be able to get a trial date for Mr. Clasen as soon as the court will allow,” Hoke said in Wednesday’s hearing.
An incurable disorder
Parkinson’s is an incurable, progressive disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain, leading in advanced cases to severe physical debilitation and often dementia. Many Parkinson’s experts say the disease can be caused by a range of factors, including exposure to pesticides such as paraquat, as well as other chemicals.
More than 10 million people globally suffer from what scientists see as the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world. It is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Syngenta maintains that paraquat does not cause Parkinson’s and asserts that as long as applicators follow label directions and wear proper protective clothing, there is no risk to human safety.
Despite the company’s claims, dozens of countries have banned paraquat, both because of the acute dangers and mounting evidence of links to health risks such as Parkinson’s from chronic, long-term exposure.
Paraquat was introduced in the 1960s by a predecessor to Syngenta, which is based in Switzerland but is a Chinese-owned entity. Paraquat is commonly used by farmers to control weeds before planting their crops and to dry out crops for harvest. In the United States, the chemical is used in orchards, wheat fields, pastures where livestock graze, cotton fields and elsewhere.
Internal Syngenta documents obtained by The New Lede show the company was aware many years ago of scientific evidence that paraquat could impact the brain in ways that cause Parkinson’s, and that it secretly sought to influence scientific research to counter the evidence of harm.
Syngenta was allegedly aided in suppressing the risks of paraquat by a “reputation management” firm called v-Fluence. Internal documents also show that the company withheld damaging internal research from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and worked to discredit a prominent scientist whose work connected paraquat to Parkinson’s.
Settlement uncertainty
A tentative settlement agreement was reached in April between lawyers leading to “multidistrict litigation” (MDL) proceedings in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
The MDL court has set a June 11 deadline for the parties to provide an update on completion of the terms of the deal. The proposed settlement has created a wedge among plaintiffs’ attorneys, with some saying the terms, which have not been made public, would enrich several leading law firms but would leave plaintiffs with paltry sums.
As of June 2, there were 6,257 active cases being overseen by a federal court in Illinois and 429 active cases pending in California courts, with additional cases in Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to the June 2 court filing.
Syngenta’s effort to settle the litigation before any high-profile trials comes after Monsanto’s owner Bayer was rocked by similar litigation alleging its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. After the company lost the first Roundup trial, its stock price plummeted, investors became enraged, and Bayer has spent years and billions of dollars fighting to end the ongoing litigation.
(Featured photo by Getty Images for Unsplash +)
