New trial ordered in Missouri peach farm suit

A massive lawsuit originally tried in Cape Girardeau that awarded millions in compensatory damages to a Missouri peach farmer and ordered two companies to pay $60 million in punitive damages has been ordered a new trial.

Bill and Denise Bader of Campbell, Missouri, filed a lawsuit against Monsanto Co. -- now owned by Bayer -- and BASF Corp., over dicamba-related products drifting into their orchards, severely damaging them. Bader Farms won the original suit in 2020 and a federal jury awarded the Baders $15 million in compensatory damages.

"While we have empathy for Mr. Bader, Monsato's products were not responsible for the losses sought in this lawsuit and we look forward to appealing the decision," Monsanto said in a statement shortly after the original ruling was handed down.

The jury ordered the two agribusiness giants to pay $250 million in punitive damages, which was later cut to $60 million by a federal judge. The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found a federal judge was improperly told to assess the damages to the companies together and a new trial has been ordered to determine the punitive damages separately.

The new trial will not affect the amount of compensatory damages awarded to Bader Farms.

Bev Randles, an attorney for Bader Farms in the original case, predicted in 2020 the case would be in litigation for years.

Dicamba has been at the center of numerous lawsuits in the past decade. It is an active ingredient used in herbicides to control weeds. The ingredient has commonly been linked to damages to non-target crops by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA has gone through numerous restriction levels for dicamba-related products since 2018, including registration orders for the products. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered three of EPA's registrations of dicamba products be vacated in 2020. Bader's lawsuit was one of more than 100 lawsuits over dicamba-related products in the past decade.

According to media reports, attorneys for the Bader family seem confident the new trial will result in even bigger payouts in punitive damages because the companies will be assessed separately. Bayer, however, has been critical of the decision and is weighing its options, according to those same reports.