Dicamba verdict gives other suits 'road map' for victory, but farmers have few other herbicide options

“I don’t think you were going to get a liberal, company-hating jury in Cape Girardeau,” said Tom Burnham, a local farmer and vocal dicamba critic. “Not in the Rush Limbaugh courthouse down there.”

Bayer faces about 30 other dicamba lawsuits involving around 170 plaintiffs, according to company attorneys. The next case may reach trial late this year.

Plaintiff attorneys say the outcome of the Bader case is promising for their clients.

Not only did the jury rule in favor of Bader Farms on all counts, but it awarded more in punitive damages than the $200 million recommended by Bader’s legal team. Moreover, the jury moved quickly: It deliberated for about four hours on Friday to find the companies at fault, and then took just 30 minutes on Saturday to decide on the $250 million penalty.

“That jury was mad,” said Paul Lesko, a St. Louis lawyer at Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane who represents dicamba plaintiffs. “What Monsanto and BASF did resonated.”

Lesko said the Bader case provides a “road map” of successful arguments that other dicamba lawsuits can follow, including glimpses of certain “hot-button documents” from inside the companies.

Lawyers said the other cases are also easier to prove. They mostly involve alleged damage to soybeans, instead of peach trees. In the Bader trial, Bayer denied the peach trees were damaged by dicamba at all.