This month’s $265 million verdict over Monsanto Co.’s dicamba herbicide sprouted more legal trouble for the agricultural giant, which is appealing nearly $2.4 billion in Roundup verdicts, but the cases are far afield from one another in the allegations they raise.
Unlike Roundup, which involves 42,700 lawsuits, only about 100 farmers have sued Monsanto over dicamba herbicide. In fact, the case that went to trial stands apart from dozens of other lawsuits pending in multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh of the Eastern District of Missouri, primarily because it was the first one filed and featured a peach orchard, not a soybean field. Still, the Missouri jury’s award, which included $250 million in punitive damages, made lawyers on both sides sit up and take notice.
