In a major setback for Bayer’s Monsanto, Washington State’s Supreme Court has reinstated a $185 million verdict tied to toxic chemical leaks at a Monroe school—breathing new life into a high-profile case that the company had managed to overturn once before.
The decision revives a 2021 jury award to three teachers from Sky Valley Education Center, who accused Monsanto of knowingly exposing them to dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs—industrial chemicals banned in the U.S. since 1979. The teachers, along with hundreds of others, claimed the leaks from old light fixtures left them and students battling cancer and other serious health conditions.
The ruling marks another turn in Bayer’s long and costly legal battles over Monsanto’s legacy of chemical production. Since acquiring the company for $63 billion in 2018, Bayer has faced a flood of lawsuits—ranging from PCB exposure to claims that Monsanto’s weedkiller, Roundup, causes cancer.
Verdicts in similar PCB cases have already crossed $1.5 billion, though several have been reduced or tossed out. Bayer had earlier reached settlements in most of the remaining cases, but Thursday’s ruling reopens one of the last nine still in dispute.
Attorneys for the teachers hailed the verdict as a warning shot to corporations that “conceal the risks of toxic chemicals.” Monsanto, meanwhile, criticized the decision and hinted it may explore further legal options.
At the heart of the dispute is whether Missouri or Washington law governs the case. A state appeals court previously sided with Bayer, ruling that Washington’s statute of limitations would have barred the teachers’ claims. But the Supreme Court disagreed, concluding that Missouri law should apply—since Monsanto’s decisions on PCB production and disclosure largely originated there.
Monsanto produced PCBs from 1935 to 1977 for use in electrical equipment, paints, caulking, and other materials—decades before the U.S. government outlawed the compounds for their link to cancer and environmental harm. Plaintiffs allege the company knew of those dangers but kept them hidden from both regulators and the public.
With this ruling, Bayer now faces renewed pressure in a legal saga that has refused to fade—anchored by decades-old chemicals and the enduring question of corporate accountability.
