BASF Peach Orchard Pesticides Case Requires New Damages Trial

BASF Corp. must face a new trial to assess what amount of punitive damages it has to pay in a case over Missouri peach orchards harmed by a weed pesticide used on surrounding crops, the Eighth Circuit said Tuesday.

Bader Farms Inc. sued Monsanto Co. and BASF for “negligent design and failure to warn,” claiming its orchards were damaged by the pesticide dicamba. Bader Farms alleged that the companies created a genetically modified crop system that allowed for the “mass spraying of deadly dicamba herbicides” on top of nearby soybean and cotton crops. Monsanto in 2015 and 2016 sold ...