EAST ST. LOUIS - Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel, presiding over almost 6,000 suits from many states blaming weed killer Paraquat for Parkinson’s disease, set the first trial to start on Oct. 14.
An order she signed on Jan. 23 narrowed the field of potential trial plaintiffs to Donald Tucker of Missouri, Paul Scibilia of New Jersey, and Marshall Bork of Alabama.
Richard Schulte of Ohio represents Tucker, Gibbs Henderson of Texas represents Scibilia and Andrea Stackhouse of Texas represents Bork.
Rosenstengel plans to select one after full case specific discovery.
She set a second trial next April and narrowed the field to Michael Peek of Illinois, Russel Okerlund of Utah and Douglas Malish of Texas.
Ashley Keller of Chicago represents Peek, LaRuby May of Florida represents Okerlund and Mikal Watts of Texas represents Malish.
Rosenstengel’s choices matter because verdicts could shape a national settlement.
A panel of judges in Washington consolidated suits against Paraquat producer Syngenta and former producer Chevron in 2021 and assigned Rosenstengel.
She planned to start a series of trials in 2023 but discovery caused two potential trial plaintiffs to dismiss their claims voluntarily.
Rosenstengel expressed concern about implausible cases with far fetched theories and she directed the parties to confer about cases she needed to dismiss.
Plaintiff lawyers have voluntarily dismissed more than 1,000 cases since then.
As of Jan. 2 the panel in Washington counted 7,183 total cases and 5,825 active.