CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Courtney Rowley delivering her opening statement
The Washington Supreme Court agreed last month to reconsider a lower court decision tossing a $185 million verdict in a lawsuit claiming Monsanto’s PCB chemicals in a school sickened teachers and students, while a related trial involving similar claims is being broadcast gavel-to-gavel via Courtroom View Network.
CVN also recorded and broadcast the 2021 trial that is the subject of the court’s October 9 decision to review an order from an intermediate appeals court tossing the verdict due to flaws in the trial. Shares of Monsanto’s parent company Bayer were impacted at the time by the news of the state supreme court’s decision, though Bayer said at the time it was confident the lower court decision would stand.
Both trials are related to sprawling litigation stemming from PCB exposure at the Sky Valley Education Center, where hundreds of students allege exposure to the chemicals in old-fashioned light fixtures and building caulk caused them to suffer a range of neurological injuries. To date verdicts in Sky Valley PCB cases, many of them recorded by CVN, have resulted in more than $1.5 billion in damages.
The earlier decision to overturn the $185 million verdict from 2021 marked the first time a Washington State appeals court considered a Sky Valley PCB case.
Monsanto was the primary manufacturer of PCBs in the United States. The long-lasting chemicals used for a wide range of industrial purposes were banned in 1979. The company’s attorneys have argued at trial that mold, dust and poor circulation in the aging Sky Valley facility caused many of the plaintiffs health problems, and that any PCB exposure took place at levels too low to have noticeable effects.
During her opening statement on behalf of the current plaintiffs, attorney Courtney Rowley of Trial Lawyers For Justice told the King County jury her team would seek up toe $750 million in compensatory damages - or roughly $30 million to $50 million per plaintiff. The potential inclusion of punitive damages could push a verdict into the billions.
Representing Monsanto, defense attorney Kimberly Branscome told jurors the company did take steps to warn the government and consumers about PCBs, but she stressed that could only happen after the scientific consensus on PCBs evolved over the years.
Branscome also argued that many of the light fixtures supposedly containing PCBs would have been replaced before the current plaintiffs spent time in the Sky Valley facility.
The trial began on October 17 and is expected to take roughly another month to complete.
The consolidated case caption is Rose, et al. v. Pharmacia LLC, case number 21-2-14304-7 SEA.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com