Washington Supreme Court restores $185 million verdict for teachers allegedly poisoned by Monsanto-made PCBs

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The Washington Supreme Court this week restored a $185 million verdict against the former Monsanto company, now owned by Bayer, over toxic chemicals in a state school building that allegedly poisoned three teachers.

The teachers, who retired due to health issues they claim were caused by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fluorescent light fixtures at the school, sued Monsanto in 2018 for design and construction defects and for failing to warn of the chemicals’ risks. The 2021 verdict in the teachers’ favor was overturned last year by a Washington state appeals court, which concluded that the trial court was incorrect in applying Missouri law, where Monsanto was based and where Bayer now houses its crop sciences headquarters for North America, rather than Washington state law, which includes a statute that gives plaintiffs 12 years to bring product liability claims.

The Supreme Court’s October 30 decision partially reverses the decision by the Court of Appeals, determining that Missouri law should be applied to the case, since “all relevant decisions concerning PCB design, the discovery of the dangers of PCBs, and the decision not to warn consumers were made in Missouri,” wrote chief justice Debra Stephens in a legal filing.

Monsanto “could not have reasonably expected the…statute of repose to immunize it from liability for tortious conduct committed in Missouri,” Stephens wrote, adding that the company sold PCBs in “every state” and that the company could not have relied on the Washington statute’s protections because it stopped producing PCBs four years before the statute was even enacted.

Three judges dissented from the opinion, siding with Monsanto’s statute of repose defense under the Washington law.

The court’s decision also affirmed punitive damages for Monsanto under Missouri law.

Monsanto scientists confirmed as early as the 1930s that PCB exposure has toxic effects, according to the legal filing, and the chemicals have been classified as carcinogenic to humans by an international cancer research group. Although Monsanto stopped making the chemicals in 1977 and the US Environmental Protection Agency banned the manufacture and sale of PCBs in 1979, “everyone in the world is likely to have PCBs quantities in his or her body,” according to the UN Environmental Programme, and the chemicals persist in the environment for many years, building up in the bodies of humans and wildlife.

PCBs still remain in many older buildings, especially schools, with a 2016 study finding that as many as 26,000 US school buildings may contain PCBs-contaminated caulk.

In addition to the three teachers who brought this case to court, more than 200 other teachers, students and family members have sued Bayer for alleged health problems from PCB exposure at the same Washington state school, reporting that they experienced memory problems, respiratory issues, headaches, rashes, blurred vision and other issues.

“This victory will immediately affect over 40 other cases on appeal, involving $1.6 billion in judgments,” plaintiffs’ attorneys Rick Friedman of Friedman Rubin and Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler LLP said in a statement. “Those cases are pending in the Washington Court of Appeals, and should now resolve relatively quickly.”

The move to restore the verdict in this case also has “sweeping implications” for similar cases nationwide, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. “This decision sends a clear message: companies that conceal the risks of toxic chemicals must be held accountable.”

Bayer wrote in a statement that “the company believes that the Court’s choice-of-law analyses underlying its rulings on punitive damages and the statute of repose are wrong and contrary to the U.S. Constitution because the rulings unlawfully discriminate against out of state companies doing business in Washington.”

The company in August reached agreements in principle to resolve all but eight other cases from the school, according to Bayer. The terms of these preliminary, nonbinding agreements are confidential, the company said.

“The company is confident in its legal strategy and prepared to defend itself at trial but will consider resolving cases when it is strategically advantageous to do so,” said Bayer.

(Featured image credit: Getty Images via Unsplash+.)