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May 27, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Individuals who object to the proposed $7.25 billion nationwide Roundup settlement between a putative class and Bayer Corp., Monsanto Co.’s parent company, removed the putative class action to Missouri federal court, arguing that the proposed agreement “extinguishes” the claims of current and future plaintiffs “in exchange for pennies on the dollar.” The objectors also moved to stay all proceedings pending a ruling on their motion to transfer the case to the multidistrict litigation for Roundup litigation.
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May 27, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded a lower court decision on the risk of water fluoridation, ruling that the district court “abused its discretion” when it refused to rule on the record presented in the first of two bench trials and when it paused the case pending publication of an additional study on water fluoridation, despite both parties asking the court to decide the case on the existing evidentiary record.
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May 26, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 26 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in a case brought by Union Carbide Corp. and an affiliate in which they argued that the court should review a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion pertaining to the correct legal standard for the admissibility of an expert under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 in an ethylene oxide (EtO) injury case.
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May 22, 2026
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The U.S. government and plaintiffs in the bellwether trial for minor plaintiffs in the Flint water crisis litigation filed posttrial proposed findings of fact in which they assert their respective arguments for who is responsible for the lead-contaminated drinking water in the city. The government insists that state regulators and city officials are primarily responsible, while the plaintiffs say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was negligent.
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May 21, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California appellate panel ruled in an unpublished opinion that a trial court abused its discretion by dismissing a wrongful death lawsuit against Monsanto Co. and others for delay in prosecution after the plaintiffs made a sufficient showing of good cause for the delay.
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May 20, 2026
PADUCAH, Ky. — A reinsurer and a ferrosilicon producer filed summary judgment motions in a Kentucky federal court in a pollution cleanup cost coverage dispute, with the reinsurer seeking dismissal of all claims against it on the basis that it is only an indemnity reinsurer with no contractual duties to the producer and the producer seeking rulings that its insurer and the reinsurer must cover more than $4.6 million in disputed claim costs, plus future regulatory compliance costs, under a pollution legal liability policy.
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May 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Monsanto Co. on May 19 filed a reply brief in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should hold the petition pending the court’s decision in the related case Monsanto v. Durnell because the two cases present the same question with respect to preemption of state law claims under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Monsanto argues that even if the court resolves the FIFRA issue in Durnell, the instant case separately warrants review because it presents an unresolved constitutional question regarding punitive damages awards.
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May 19, 2026
LEVERKUSEN, Germany — Bayer AG on May 18 announced settlements with Michigan and Rhode Island for potential claims by the states related to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) pollution. The settlements have a combined total minimum payment of $133 million, with the possibility of additional contingent payments tied to an indemnity lawsuit that Monsanto Co. filed against companies that it says agreed to cover certain liabilities from PCBs.
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May 18, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Despite determining that the plaintiffs’ motion to compel discovery in a toxic chemical exposure case was untimely, a federal magistrate judge in Kansas ruled on the merits of the motion and denied it as “overbroad, unduly burdensome, and not proportional to the needs of the case” because it sought documents spanning a 65-year period. The magistrate judge ruled that discovery was limited to a 10-year period dating from the filing of the complaint in 2015.
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May 18, 2026
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The federal judge in South Carolina overseeing the multidistrict litigation (MDL) for the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) has remanded to state court three of nine groundwater contamination cases brought by South Carolina water authorities against E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. and other companies, ruling that DuPont’s government contractor defense does not apply to all of the cases.
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May 18, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The federal judge in California presiding over the multidistrict litigation related to the herbicide Roundup has denied plaintiffs’ request for an injunction or declaratory relief regarding certain features of a proposed nationwide class action settlement in other Roundup litigation, saying that the settlement, even if it were granted final approval and survived appellate review, “would not prevent this Court from exercising its authority over” the cases in the MDL.
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May 18, 2026
NEW YORK — A federal judge held, in partially granting and denying a motion to dismiss, that a historic industrial community in New York can proceed with some, but not all, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and state law claims against International Business Machines Corp. for allegedly contaminating residential drinking water wells with toxic chemicals for decades, finding that claims associated with at least one of three of the community’s wells are part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site covered by federal settlement agreements governing cleanup efforts.
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May 18, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii has dismissed and closed one of three consolidated cases stemming from groundwater contamination following a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, ruling that the claims are barred under the Feres doctrine, which holds that the federal government is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for injuries to service members “resulting from, or ‘incident to,’ active-duty military service.” The plaintiffs in the case at hand were active-duty service members at the time of the fuel spill in 2021.
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May 15, 2026
BUTTE, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana has denied as moot motions to dismiss filed by 3M Co., DuPont de Nemours Inc. and others in a lawsuit over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in what is called “turnout gear” for firefighters, ruling that the plaintiffs’ second amended complaint superseded the earlier complaint targeted by the motions.
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May 15, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on May 14 denied as moot a motion to dismiss filed by W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. in a lawsuit over the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in its outdoor clothing, ruling that the plaintiffs’ second amended putative class action complaint supersedes the one Gore moved to dismiss.
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May 14, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 13 denied rehearing and rehearing en banc for a man with cancer who asked the court to review a panel ruling that affirmed dismissal of his lawsuit against Monsanto Co. for injuries allegedly caused by exposure to the herbicide Roundup on grounds the claims were barred by the statute of repose in the Indiana Products Liability Act (IPLA).
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May 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Plaintiffs who won $549.9 million in punitive damages in a Roundup injury case in Missouri state court have filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing Monsanto Co.’s petition for a writ of certiorari, arguing that under Missouri law, strict liability for design defect is a stand-alone claim for which a party can be liable, “irrespective of any warnings given.”
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May 12, 2026
DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has dismissed Frontier Airlines Inc. from a toxic exposure lawsuit brought by flight attendants who have alleged claims against multiple defendants related to an incident in which they were allegedly exposed to toxic fumes while on the job. The judge ruled that the claims against Frontier were covered by the Colorado Workers' Compensation Act (WCA) and denied the plaintiffs’ motion to remand the case to Colorado state court.
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May 11, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An interlocutory appeal is warranted in a silica exposure coverage suit because a California federal judge’s order denying a motion for judgment on the pleadings filed by the insurers involves questions of law regarding the scope and application of silica exclusions in the insurers’ policies, the insurers say in a motion for certification of interlocutory appeal.
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May 04, 2026
PENDLETON, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon, in denying a motion to consolidate two similar, pending lawsuits involving the alleged contamination of groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin by Amazon Data Services (ADS), the Port of Morrow and several agricultural companies in violation of state law and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), held that “the judicial economy does not require consolidation” of the cases and opined that joining them could prejudice the defendants.
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May 04, 2026
ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York has granted final approval to a $27 million class action settlement to resolve a long-running dispute between residents and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. over the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination of drinking water in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., finding that the settlement is “fair, adequate, and reasonable” and saying that it drew no objections and no opt-outs.
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May 04, 2026
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that a state court acted “in a manner in which it does not properly have jurisdiction” by issuing an order requiring the defendants in a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) case to resume litigating the lawsuit while the issue of federal removal remains on appeal at the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court stayed the case and issued a writ of prohibition requiring it to vacate the order in question.
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April 28, 2026
By Tony Cole
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May 01, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — In an unpublished opinion, an appellate court panel in California affirmed a verdict in favor of Monsanto Co. in a lawsuit alleging that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused a man to develop cancer, ruling that to the extent the trial court did not limit Monsanto’s use of a separate-but-related lawsuit in questioning at trial, the plaintiff forfeited his objection to that line of questioning by not raising that specific issue at trial.
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April 30, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal magistrate judge in Connecticut has approved a modified protective order outlining broad topics related to the handling of confidential information and the use of generative AI in discovery in an injury lawsuit related to exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFAS) brought by firefighters, firefighter unions and parties that purchased gear for firefighters against the makers of PFAS. Among other things, the order establishes that confidential material that is uploaded into a generative AI tool should not be hosted on public cloud servers or used to train public AI models.