Monsanto reaches agreements to resolve additional PCB cases at Sky Valley Education Center

Agreements resolve all Sky Valley cases, involving more than 200 plaintiffs, except prior adverse verdicts that remain on appeal

Monsanto has now reached agreements in principle to resolve all Sky Valley Education Center cases, representing more than 200 plaintiffs overall, with the exception of the prior adverse verdicts that remain on appeal. The Sky Valley Education Center cases involve allegations of injuries due to exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the school campus in Washington state.

The terms of the agreements in principle are confidential and subject to approval of final settlement agreements by the parties. The cost of the additional settlements is covered by the PCB litigation provision taken in Q2, which also covers the previously announced settlement of the Burke case as well as other PCB-related litigation costs.

While the company remains confident in its legal strategy and defenses, and is fully prepared to defend cases at trial, it has maintained it will consider resolving cases on appropriate terms when it is strategically advantageous to help mitigate the risks and uncertainties of this litigation. The company continues to pursue a multi-pronged strategy to significantly contain the risks of this litigation by the end of 2026.

The adverse jury decisions in nine prior cases (49 plaintiffs) remain under appeal and are not included in the settlement agreements. Each of these cases has its own unique factual and legal record, and all of these appeals raise additional questions of law that are not before the Washington State Supreme Court in Erickson, a case that is still pending.

The company filed a complaint in Missouri to enforce its rights under indemnity contracts signed in 1972 by its largest, former electrical manufacturing customers. Under these agreements, these former customers agreed to fully defend and indemnify Monsanto as a condition of continuing to receive bulk PCBs for use in their closed-end finished products.

Widely recognized as nonflammable safety fluids, PCBs were once specified by many electrical and building codes and insurance companies to protect against serious fire risk, and their production was required by the federal government to protect the nation’s electrical grid. In 1972, the Interdepartmental Task Force on PCBs, comprised of eight federal agencies and sub-agencies, including EPA, found that continued manufacture and sale of PCBs for certain electrical applications was necessary. Monsanto voluntarily ceased all PCB production in 1977.