BENTON – Belleville lawyer Michael Weilmuenster can’t immediately intervene in a closed class action to obtain confidential information of Syngenta Crop Protection, U. S. District Judge Phil Gilbert ruled on Sept. 13.
Gilbert found he lacked jurisdiction over an intervention motion that Weilmuenster filed on behalf of Jane Doe on Sept. 9.
Doe wants Gilbert to modify a protective order he signed in 2011, but it can’t happen now because nature groups appealed the order to the U.S. Seventh Circuit in Chicago.
"Any disputes regarding the protective order must await a decision by the Court of Appeals,” he had written in denying previous intervention motions on Aug. 30.
Weilmuenster’s client claims her drinking water contained atrazine, a weed killer that Syngenta produces.
She claims it caused her son’s urethra to open on the wrong part of his penis.
She seeks documents that St. Louis lawyer Stephen Tillery obtained from Syngenta, arguing she can’t afford to repeat his discovery.
Belleville lawyer Bob Sprague and Joseph Power of Chicago offered the same argument in their Jane Doe motion on Aug. 16.
They had sued Syngenta in St. Clair County circuit court on Aug. 14.
Circuit Judge Andrew Gleeson sealed the file.
Joseph Siprut and Gregg Barbakoff of Chicago moved to intervene on Aug. 30, pleading they couldn’t afford to repeat the discovery.
Gilbert sets aside another injury claim in closed atrazine case; Says again decision must await Seventh Circuit
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