Three teachers look to Friedman Rubin PLLP to secure a Massive Win!
In a landmark decision, a jury verdict of $185 million in favor of three former teachers took center stage in the case of Erickson v. Pharmacia LLC, a product-liability action against the successor of Monsanto Company. The case unfolded over a seven-week trial and culminated in a sweeping win for the teachers and their legal team.
The plaintiffs — Kerry L. Erickson, Michelle M. Leahy, and Joyce E. Marquardt — alleged that they developed serious health problems while teaching at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, where building materials from the 1960s contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) manufactured by Monsanto. These PCB’s contain materials that are harmful to humans.
Representing the teachers, the plaintiffs’ lead counsel included Henry G. Jones, James A. Hertz, Sean J. Gamble, Ronald J. Park, and Richard Friedman of Friedman | Rubin PLLP, along with pro hac vice counsel Deepak Gupta, Robert D. Friedman, Jonathan E. Taylor, and Gregory A. Beck of Gupta Wessler LLP. On the defense side, the team for Pharmacia (Monsanto’s successor in interest) comprised Jennifer L. Campbell, Allison K. Krashan, Jean-Claude André (pro hac vice), Farron Curry and CaroLea W. Casas of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers brought forward decades of evidence showing Monsanto manufactured and marketed PCBs while allegedly failing to warn about their dangers, though they were once considered safe. The teacher-plaintiffs asserted the older school building still held PCB-contaminated materials and that their illness onset coincided with their time at the school. Through intensive expert testimony and pointed cross-examination, the plaintiffs’ team secured a unanimous jury verdict holding the defendant liable.
On appeal, substantial legal issues centered on which state’s laws applied — Washington versus Missouri. The Washington Supreme Court ultimately held that while Washington law governs liability, the statute of repose and punitive damage questions fell under Missouri law — restoring the verdict in the plaintiffs’ favor.
The $185 million award — consisting of both compensatory and punitive damages — marks a major triumph for the plaintiffs. For the teachers and their counsel, it vindicates years of work and documents the accountability of a chemical manufacturer for legacy contamination.
The Miller Firm LLC and Baum Helund Aristei and Goldman PC to Tackle Toxic Roundup Chemicals!
In one of the most significant toxic tort verdicts in American history, a California jury delivered a resounding message to Monsanto Company — now owned by Bayer AG — by awarding $2.055 billion to Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a couple who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of using the herbicide Roundup on their property. The case became a milestone in the national debate over glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, and whether Monsanto had adequately warned consumers of potential cancer risks.
The trial, held in Alameda County Superior Court before Judge Winifred Y. Smith, featured months of testimony from medical experts, toxicologists, and corporate witnesses. The jury found Monsanto liable on theories of design defect, failure to warn, and negligence — concluding that the company acted with malice or oppression in its marketing of Roundup.
Representing the Pilliods was a formidable team of plaintiff attorneys who had already made names for themselves in earlier Roundup trials. Michael Miller, Nancy Miller, Curtis G. Hoke, David J. Dickens, and Jeffrey Travers of The Miller Firm LLC joined forces with R. Brent Wisner, Pedram Esfandiary, and Michael L. Baum of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman PC. They were supported by Mark Burton of Audet & Partners LLP and Steven J. Brady of Brady Law Group. Their combined litigation strategy was meticulous — blending personal storytelling with deep technical evidence showing Monsanto’s long-standing internal awareness of scientific controversy surrounding glyphosate.
On the other side, Monsanto was defended by a high-profile national litigation team. Counsel included Kelly A. Evans of Evans Fears & Schuttert LLP, Eugene Brown Jr. of Hinshaw & Culbertson, Tarek Ismail of Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP, and Kirby T. Griffis of Hollingsworth LLP. They argued that Roundup had been deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and numerous regulatory bodies, and that scientific consensus did not support a causal link between glyphosate and cancer.
The jury nevertheless sided decisively with the Pilliods. The verdict included approximately $55 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, reflecting the jury’s belief that Monsanto acted with reckless disregard for consumer safety. Judge Smith later reduced the total award to around $87 million to comply with constitutional limits on punitive damages, but the symbolic power of the initial figure reverberated across the country.
For the plaintiffs’ lawyers, the Pilliod verdict stood as both vindication and warning — proof that ordinary consumers could challenge a global corporation on scientific and moral grounds. Their work, following earlier Roundup victories in San Francisco and subsequent trials nationwide, became emblematic of persistence in the face of corporate denial.
While Monsanto’s counsel continued to press appeals and contest liability, the case’s legacy endures: it pushed Bayer to consider multibillion-dollar settlement programs and forced broader public scrutiny of herbicide safety. For Alva and Alberta Pilliod — and for the lawyers who championed them — the trial became a defining moment in the modern era of product-liability litigation, transforming a personal tragedy into a landmark victory for accountability.
