Syngenta Defeats Initial Paraquat Parkinson’s Bellwether Cases

Syngenta AG notched an early victory in sprawling litigation over the alleged link between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease, when a federal judge excluded plaintiffs’ expert testimony in the first four bellwether trial cases.

The US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Wednesday granted judgment for the agribusiness company in those cases because the exclusion of testimony from the plaintiffs’ sole general causation expert meant they couldn’t establish a cause-effect link between exposure to the weedkiller and the disease.

The litigation involves more than 500 cases alleging that Syngenta and Chevron USA Inc. knew or should have ...