This blog from Carey Gillam is regularly updated with news and advice on lawsuits related to Monsanto`s glyphosate-based Roundup weedkillers. You can find discovery documents on our Monsanto Papers pages. Please consider making a donation here to support our investigation. Neither side wants to wait to see how appeals against court decisions evolve, Feinberg said, and Bayer hopes to announce good news at its annual general meeting in April. Aside from what individual plaintiffs may or may not get away with, some legal observers in the vicinity of the Roundup litigation have said greater property has been achieved with Monsanto`s exposure to corporate misconduct. The court`s showing that it is interested in discussing the appropriate amount of damages, rather than issues related to Monsanto`s request to set aside the loss of the lawsuit in its entirety, bodes well for the plaintiff`s side, legal observers said. After three stunning defeats in the California courtroom, the legal battle over the safety of Monsanto`s best-selling Roundup herbicide is heading to the company`s hometown, where company representatives may be forced to appear on the witness stand, and legal precedence shows a history of anti-company decisions. Bayer`s news comes ahead of a general meeting on April 26, at which some investors are asking Bayer CEO Werner Baumann to lead the company in the acquisition of Monsanto. Monsanto`s top executive returned home with millions of dollars in exit packages just before the first Roundup cancer lawsuit, leaving Bayer holding the bag for losses in litigation and bad publicity.

Since last summer, the company has seen an exodus of customers as retailers, cities, school districts and others say they are pulling out of Monsanto`s herbicides. The number of farmers seeking legal representation to sue Monsanto and BASF has increased in the past week and a half after a Missouri peach producer awarded $265 million to a Missouri peach producer who claimed both companies were responsible for the loss of his livelihood. according to Joseph Peiffer of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane. Peiffer said more than 2,000 farmers are likely to become plaintiffs. Monsanto`s new owner, Bayer AG, is not content to rely on Monsanto`s litigation team, which lost the Johnson case, and brings its own legal defense team. The Bayer team that helped the German company win a lawsuit over the anticoagulant Xarelto now includes Pamela Yates and Andrew Solow of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer and Brian Stekloff of Wilkinson Walsh Eskovitz. As the third day of the first federal trial begins over allegations that Monsanto`s Roundup products can cause cancer, District Judge Vince Chhabria has made it clear that he has no fondness for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman`s legal team. Bayer hopes the Appeal to the Supreme Court will save them, but the company already has a solid backup plan. If the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case or rejects Bayer`s legal argument, Bayer plans to set up an administrative procedure to deal with future claims and has already allocated $4 billion to cover the costs.

(Get an update on the Supreme Court`s appeal.) Stephens also testified about a family reunion where his mother shared the news of her cancer with the family, the long series of medical treatments that followed, her mother`s memory loss and other treatment-related issues, and a period during which her mother was hospitalized several times and nearly died. The lawsuit also alleges that Bayer`s recent announcement of a review of its acquisition efforts is “false” and “is part of the ongoing cover-up and intends to create a legal impediment to this case to protect the defendants from liability.” Bayer also issued a statement: “We are disappointed with the jury`s first decision, but we remain firmly convinced that science confirms that glyphosate-based herbicides do not cause cancer. We are confident that the Phase Two evidence will show that Monsanto`s conduct was appropriate and that the company should not be held responsible for Mr. Hardeman`s cancer. However, regardless of the outcome, the decision made in the first phase of this process has no bearing on future cases and trials, as each has its own factual and legal circumstances. We have great sympathy for Dr. Hardeman and his family, but a large scientific collection supports the conclusion that Roundup™ was not the cause of his cancer. Bayer supports these products and will vigorously defend them. Monsanto was active in the case that supported EPA approvals prior to the decision, but BASF and DuPont falsely claimed that the lawsuit only applied to Monsanto`s products and not their own. However, the court clarified that the EPA had illegally approved the products manufactured by the three companies. One of the company`s key legal strategies has also recently suffered a blow. He claimed that because the EPA — acting under federal law — did not require cancer warnings on Roundup labels, the company cannot be accused in state court of failing to warn users of a cancer risk.