Bayer Urges Missouri Judge to Approve $7.25B Roundup Deal

Bayer's Monsanto unit urged a Missouri state court judge on Monday to approve a $7.25 billion proposed settlement designed to resolve nearly all current and future Roundup cancer claims in the United States, pushing back against mounting opposition from objectors over payout limits and fee structures.

"This is the settlement. There is not another settlement," said James Bennett, an attorney representing Monsanto, during the court hearing before Missouri Judge Timothy Boyer, according to a Yahoo Finance report.

Payout Tiers and Current Litigation Scale

The proposed financial agreement establishes tiered payouts ranging from $10,000 to $165,000 for individuals exposed to the weed killer who subsequently developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Compensation amounts are determined by specific medical criteria, including cancer severity, the claimant's age at the time of diagnosis, and the setting in which exposure occurred.

Bayer currently faces approximately 65,000 active claims across U.S. state and federal courts. Plaintiffs in these proceedings allege that prolonged exposure to glyphosate-based Roundup caused them to develop cancer.

Supreme Court Impact on Plaintiff Decisions

Legal positioning surrounding the litigation shifted following a pivotal high-court ruling. Attorney Hunter Shkolnik informed the judge that approximately 800 to 900 of his firm's 3,000 Roundup clients initially intended to opt out of the resolution, but ultimately reconsidered after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Monsanto in June regarding a central legal question concerning federal preemption of state-level warning labels.

Objections and Attorneys' Fees

Despite the manufacturer's push for final approval, the settlement has encountered significant resistance from various legal objectors. Critics of the proposed agreement have challenged several key provisions, including:

• Inadequate individual payout maximums for severe diagnoses
• The treatment and binding of future claimants who have not yet manifested cancer symptoms
• jurisdictional attempts to bind residents of states outside Missouri
• A requested allocation of $675 million in attorneys' fees