CVN screenshot of defense attorney Michelle Ramirez delivering her opening statement
Clayton, MO - Opening statements took place Tuesday in Missouri state court at the latest trial over alleged cancer risks associated with Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, and the proceedings are being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Albert “Ab” Grantges, 54, claims he developed a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma after decades using Roundup. His lawsuit accuses Bayer-owned Monsanto of knowing glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic, but Monsanto maintains as they have in previous trials that Roundup is safe and lawsuits claiming otherwise are based on junk science promoted by plaintiff attorneys.
While plaintiffs landed major verdicts in recent Roundup trials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, the current trial takes place before Judge Brian May in St. Louis County, Missouri - a venue that delivered defense verdicts in all four Roundup trials there to date - all of which were also recorded by CVN, in addition to the recent Georgia trial.
Grantges is represented by Texas-based Arnold & Atkin, who served as plaintiff counsel at the Georgia trial, along with Pennsylvania-based Kline & Specter, PC which has represented plaintiffs in numerous Roundup trials in Philadelphia.
Monsanto is represented by a Chicago-based team from Sidney Austin backed up by local Missouri counsel from Husch Blackwell.
The trial begins shortly after Monsanto asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Missouri appellate finding that Roundup-related claims are not pre-empted by federal law. The $1.25 million verdict in the underlying case from 2023 marked the first time plaintiffs won a Roundup trial in Missouri, and it was also recorded by CVN.
The trial also takes place shortly after The Wall Street Journal broke news that Monsanto is considering bankruptcy if a global Roundup settlement can’t be reached. The company has paid billions to settle the bulk of nearly 125,000 Roundup lawsuits, but thousands more are pending throughout the United States, and plaintiff attorneys continue to pursue aggressive marketing campaigns looking for new cases.
If a global deal is looming, then the outcome of any jury trials leading up to it could significantly influence the contours of any final agreement. The trial before Judge May is expected to take roughly four weeks to complete and CVN’s live and on-demand coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Albert Grantges v. Monsanto Company, case number 20SL-CC02256 in Missouri’s 21st Circuit Court in Clayton County.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com