EAST ST. LOUIS - Nine of 25 plaintiffs that Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel selected to test the substance of claims that weed killer paraquat caused Parkinson’s disease dismissed their claims in two weeks.
Rosenstengel picked nine replacements on Feb. 7 and wrote that the dismissals reinforced her concern about proliferation of claims without merit.
She stated she’d continue replacing plaintiffs on her list who dismiss claims.
She presides over more than 5,000 claims from federal courts in many states by appointment of a judicial panel in Washington, D.C..
Rosenstengel planned a series of jury trials starting last October to shape global settlement.
She selected six trial plaintiffs, but two of them voluntarily dismissed their claims last May.
She found they dismissed claims due to evidentiary issues.
She didn’t specify the issues, but she expressed concern about implausible or far fetched theories of liability.
“Given the current size of the litigation and the pace of filings, the court would like to identify such cases now rather than letting them remain on the docket indefinitely,” she wrote.
She ordered plaintiffs to confer with defendants Syngenta and Chevron about such cases.
Syngenta counsel Ragan Naresh of Chicago moved for docket control in June.
Naresh claimed some plaintiffs didn’t have Parkinson’s disease.
He claimed some alleged they used paraquat in dry mix or premixed, which defendants never sold.
He claimed some alleged they used it where it wasn’t permitted, such as school grounds.
He also claimed some alleged they used it before 1964, when paraquat came to the market.
In August, Rosenstengel vacated her trial schedule.
Plaintiffs dismissed roughly 12 cases a week for months, but the pace didn’t satisfy her.
On Jan. 22, she selected 25 plaintiffs for depositions and third party discovery.
Rosenstengel stated she remained concerned that a significant number of plaintiffs did not plausibly allege exposure to paraquat.
She set a March 22 deadline for depositions.
For each deposition, she ordered a joint summary on two pages within 14 days.
Rosenstengel stated if discovery revealed there was no good faith basis to sue, she’d consider imposing costs and fees in an appropriate amount.
She stated the list should be considered preliminary and she might order additional depositions after reviewing submissions.
In two weeks, Madison Keyes of Mississippi dismissed claims of five clients on the list.
Additionally, Miriam Agrait of Miami, Patrick McAndrew of Houston, Jeffrey Benton of Dallas and Gibbs Henderson of Dallas each dismissed claims of a client on the list.
Rosenstengel replaced two of the nine with clients of McAndrew and replaced three with clients of Keyes, Henderson and Benton.
She replaced the others with clients of Mikal Watts of Texas, Julia Merritt of Georgia, Tayjes Shah of Virginia, and Gary Anderson of Alabama.
She ordered completion of limited discovery by April 8.
She informed the parties that special master Randi Ellis would oversee any request by defendants for documents or depositions of third parties.
Rosenstengel limited third party discovery to cases where proof of an applicator’s license or evidence of a plaintiff’s use of paraquat is lacking.
She stated she expected discovery to include subpoenas to retailers for proof of purchase.
She stated she expected it to include affidavits or depositions from supervisors where plaintiffs claim to have worked under a supervisor’s applicator license.
“Of course, if a plaintiff promptly produces this information it will not be necessary for Defendants to engage in third party discovery,” she wrote.
A day earlier, her special master Randi Ellis recommended that she dismiss claims of 60 plaintiffs who didn’t answer assessment questionnaires.
Ellis found McAndrew’s firm, Pulaski Kehrkehr, didn’t fill out questionnaires for 46 clients.
She found Chad Finley of Tor Hoerman’s firm in Edwardsville didn’t fill one out for client Kurtis Hunsaker of Utah.
Rosenstengel has not yet set a trial schedule.