September 29, 2011 - Monsanto Co. has lost a bid to close part of a lawsuit alleging the company caused health injuries to residents living near a plant that made the Vietnam War-era U.S. military defoliant “Agent Orange.”
Monsanto, which operated a Nitro, West Virginia, chemical plant from 1934 to 2000, argued it was working as a government contractor and therefore protected from certain claims related to its waste disposal at that facility.
But U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in New York on Wednesday rejected the company’s request for partial summary judgment based on its “government contractor defense” and said the suit, filed in 2009 by West Virginia residents, could proceed.
Monsanto spokesman Thomas Helscher said the case related to ”the former Monsanto company from over 40 years ago.”
“Although the motion has been denied at this time, we remain confident that we will prevail on the merits at the trial of this case,” Helscher said.
In his written ruling, Gardephe cited the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upholding a trial court’s finding in signature Agent Orange litigation.
“Here, there is no evidence that the U.S. government was ever aware of the alleged open pit burning practice, much less that it had evaluated the hazard posed by such a practice,” Gardephe said.
“Because defendants have not demonstrated that the complained-of activity — the open pit burning of dioxin waste at the Nitro plant — was conducted ‘pursuant to reasonably precise government specifications,’ their motion for summary judgment based on the government contractor defense must be denied,” the judge said. read more>>>
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