Court overturns $185M verdict for Monsanto PCBs at Monroe school
MONROE — State appeals court judges on Wednesday overturned an $185 million jury verdict awarded to three former teachers at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe who sued Monsanto alleging exposure to toxic chemicals at the school left them with permanent health defects.
After a seven-week trial in 2021, a King County jury found Monsanto liable for the contamination at the school and awarded damages to the three teachers — Kerry Erickson, Michelle Leahy and Joyce Marquardt. They were the first of hundreds of teachers, students and their families to go to trial over their exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that leaked from light ballasts in the school.
This case is also the first to reach the appeals court after trial, Judge Janet Chung noted in her opinion.
For compensatory damages, the jury awarded $15 million each to Erickson, $18 million to Leahy and $17 million to Marquardt. On top of that, the jury also agreed to award each with $45 million in punitive damages. The plaintiffs’ attorneys asked the jury to award at least $10 million each in compensatory damages and three times that for punitive damages for each.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/court-overturns-185m-verdict-for-monsanto-pcbs-at-monroe-school/
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