EAST ST. LOUIS - Attorney Patrick McAndrew of Houston failed to return questionnaires for 317 clients who claimed weed killer paraquat caused Parkinson’s disease, according to records in national litigation at U.S. district court.
Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel has dismissed 135 McAndrew cases, without prejudice, for failure to answer questionnaires.
Her special master Randi Ellis recommended similar action on 182 more complaints.
McAndrew has also voluntarily dismissed 116 complaints.
If Rosenstengel adopts Ellis’s recommendation McAndrew will have 548 cases remaining out of 981 he filed, plus any he filed after Aug. 25.
Rosenstengel presides over suits from many states against paraquat producer Syngenta and former producer Chevron by appointment of a judicial panel in Washington.
The panel’s website shows 5,757 active cases and 1,054 closed cases as of Aug. 1.
Complaints provide little useful information about exposure so questionnaires take their place.
Failing to answer one amounts to filing no complaint at all.
Last October, on a recommendation of Ellis, Rosenstengel dismissed 27 McAndrew cases for failure to answer.
She dismissed 20 cases of other firms.
In December, she reported 62 failures from McAndrew and 24 from other firms.
In February, she reported 46 failures from McAndrew and 14 from other firms.
Rosenstengel dismissed both groups in February.
In May, Ellis reported 112 failures from McAndrew and 25 from other firms.
On Aug. 22, she reported 70 failures from McAndrew and six from other firms.
Attorney Chad Finley of Tor Hoerman’s firm in Edwardsville filed eight of the suits Rosenstengel dismissed and five that Ellis recommended for dismissal.
Rosenstengel has selected ten possible plaintiffs for trials to shape global settlement.
Her schedule of discovery to narrow the field will take up the rest of the year.