Nearly a year after a
mysterious leak of industry-friendly information from the Environmental
Protection Agency, many pressing questions remain about the agency’s
interactions with agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. and its handling of
cancer concerns with Monsanto’s top-selling herbicide. But thanks to a
federal court judge in California, we may soon start getting some
answers.
The transcript of a recent court hearing reveals that Judge Vince Chhabria,
who is overseeing a combination of more than 55 lawsuits filed against
Monsanto in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California, warned Monsanto that many documents it is turning over in
discovery will not be kept sealed despite the company’s pleas for
privacy. He threatened to impose sanctions if
Monsanto persists in
“overbroad” efforts to keep relevant documents out of public view.
The litigation against
Monsanto has been filed by people from around the United States who
allege that exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused them or
their loved ones to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that
originates in the lymphatic system and has been on the rise in recent
decades. While those lawsuits are being handled together as
“multi-district litigation” (MDL) in San Francisco, hundreds of other
plaintiffs are making similar allegations in multiple state courts as
well. And the teams of lawyers involved say they are continuing to meet
with prospective additional plaintiffs.
“I have a problem with
Monsanto, because it’s —- it is insisting that stuff be filed under seal
that should not be filed under seal,” Judge Chhabria stated in the
hearing. When documents are “relevant to the litigation, they shouldn’t
be under seal, even if they are not – are embarrassing to Monsanto, you
know, even if Monsanto doesn’t like what they say.”
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