By Brendan Pierson and Dietrich Knauth
(Reuters) – A Washington state jury said on Tuesday that Bayer ( OTC: ) must pay $100 million to four people who say they were sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals known as PCBs produced by the company’s predecessor Monsanto (NYSE:) that were used in light fixtures at a Seattle school, but the company was found not liable for injuries alleged by eleven others, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney.
The Washington state court’s ruling, which followed a two-month trial, is the latest in a series of court losses for the chemical company over alleged contamination of the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington.
More than 200 students, employees and parents have reported developing cancer, thyroid disease, neurological damage and other health problems from polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, leaking from school light fixtures.
Verdicts in previous trials for alleged contamination at the school, involving different groups of plaintiffs, have totaled more than $1.5 billion, although some have been reduced or overturned.
Bayer won a $185 million judgment in favor of three teachers and the teacher’s spouse, which was overturned on appeal last year on several grounds. A state appeals court agreed with Bayer that the trial court misapplied the laws of Missouri, where Monsanto is headquartered, by allowing lawsuits to be filed decades after the company stopped making PCBs in 1977. The company said Washington law should have applied instead and blocked would the claims of the plaintiff as submitted too late.
Washington’s highest court is expected to hear an appeal of that ruling.
In August, the $857 million verdict was reduced to $438 million, after a judge found it included excessive punitive damages.
Bayer bought Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. Since then, lawsuits over PCBs, and more significantly over claims that the herbicide Roundup causes cancer, have weighed heavily on the company’s stock.
PCBs were once widely used to insulate electrical equipment and were also used in products such as photocopier paper, sealants, floor finishes and paint. The US government banned them in 1979 because they were linked to cancer and other health problems. Monsanto produced PCBs from 1935 to 1977.
Prosecutors said Monsanto knew about the dangers of PCBs for decades but hid them from the public and government regulators.
Bayer argued that the plaintiffs failed to prove that their injuries were caused by PCBs and that the EPA considered the levels found at the school to be safe. The school was also said to have ignored warnings from government officials that lighting fixtures in the old building must be retrofitted.
(This story has been corrected to reflect the number of plaintiffs who received no award in paragraph 1.)
