EAST ST. LOUIS - Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel should dismiss 137 paraquat plaintiffs who sued Syngenta and Chevron but didn’t return questionnaires, special master Randi Ellis reported on May 30.
Ellis’s list included 112 clients of the Pulaski Kehrkehr firm in Houston.
Among the other 25 she found four clients of Tor Hoerman’s firm in Edwardsville.
Rosenstengel presides over about 6,500 suits from many states alleging that exposure to the weed killer caused Parkinson’s disease.
A year ago she expressed concern about cases without merit on her docket and directed plaintiff counsel to confer with Syngenta and Chevron about dismissing those cases.
The clerk has closed more than 750 cases since then through voluntary dismissals and Rosenstengel’s dismissal orders.
The clerk closed 243 Patrick McAndrew cases (Pulaski Kehrkehr) as of May 31 out of 816 he filed.
If Rosenstengel adopts Ellis’s recommendation McAndrew’s total of closed cases would reach 355 plus any he might dismiss voluntarily in the meantime.
The number of closed cases would approach 1,100, about a sixth of the docket.
Meanwhile at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, paraquat plaintiffs have asked for review of Rosenstengel’s exclusion of an expert’s opinion that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease.
Four plaintiffs she selected for trial but dismissed after excluding epidemiologist Martin Wells filed appeal notices with the on May 16.
Seventh Circuit judges consolidated the cases and deadline for an appeal brief to July 26, and Aug. 26 for defendants Syngenta and Chevron, and Sept. 16 for any reply from plaintiffs.
Rosenstengel presides over about 6,500 claims against paraquat producer Syngenta and former producer Chevron.
Scientists have searched for evidence of causation but no study established a connection.
Wells performed “meta analysis,” or a study of studies, and concluded that exposure to paraquat caused Parkinson’s disease.
Rosenstengel listened to his testimony for two days last August and rejected it in April.
“Dr. Wells’ violations of the rules of meta analysis are evident from the very beginning of his process,” she wrote.
“His proffered opinion required several methodological contortions and outright violations of the scientific standards he professed to apply.”
She found he defined occupational exposure three times, creating more questions than answers about exposures that according to him could cause the disease.
She found the deficiencies in his methods suggested he failed to apply the intellectual rigor that would be required of him and his peers outside of litigation.
She found any attempt to replicate his search for relevant literature would require a degree of clairvoyance that she does not possess.
She found his unwritten approach freed him to select studies he wanted to analyze and justify his selections based on results.
She found his failure to define eligibility criteria in advance suggested he selected studies he wanted and crafted criteria to justify his decisions.
She dismissed plaintiffs Frederick Richter of Effingham County, Keith Fuller of Adams County, Todd Burgener of Macon County, and Matthew Conrad of Florida.
She had selected them for trials that could shape global settlement but their lawyers told her last year that they couldn’t prevail without Wells.
Chad Finley of Tor Hoerman’s firm in Edwardsville represents Burgener and Troy Walton of Walton Telken in Edwardsville represents Richter.
LaRuby May of Alabama represents Conrad and Leslie LaMacchia of Florida represents Fuller.