$185 Million Verdict for Three Teachers Poisoned by Monsanto PCBs in School Lighting

For several years starting around 2011, Kerry Erickson, Michelle Leahy, and Joyce Marquardt taught at Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, a school housed in buildings constructed in the 1950s. The fluorescent light fixtures overhead contained electrical ballasts manufactured by Monsanto that used polychlorinated biphenyls, a class of synthetic chemical compounds Monsanto produced under the trade name Aroclor until PCBs were banned in 1979.

As the ballasts aged, PCBs volatilized and accumulated in the air inside the classrooms. The three teachers reported a progression of symptoms over their years at the school: fatigue, respiratory problems, heart palpitations, memory loss, and cognitive difficulties. Medical evaluation attributed their neurological injuries to chronic PCB exposure at levels the plaintiffs contended were foreseeable given the age and condition of the building.

Friedman Rubin attorneys Richard (Rick) Friedman, Henry Jones, and Sean Gamble tried the case on behalf of the three teachers. The trial centered on what Monsanto knew about the health risks of PCB exposure from aging building fixtures, and when. The plaintiffs argued Monsanto had long-standing internal research showing the dangers of PCB volatilization from fluorescent ballasts and sold the product anyway while concealing those risks from the public.

This case was the first of 22 planned trials involving teachers, parents, and students connected to the same facility, with more than 200 potential plaintiffs in the broader litigation.

On July 28, 2021, the jury returned a verdict of $185 million. The award included compensatory damages of $15 million, $18 million, and $17 million for the three plaintiffs respectively, plus $45 million in punitive damages for each. The punitive damages were assessed under Missouri law, where Monsanto was incorporated, rather than Washington law. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, disagreed with the verdict and appealed, objecting to the application of Missouri punitive damages law and to the plaintiffs' expert methodologies. A divided Washington Court of Appeals vacated the award in 2024, but on October 30, 2025 the Washington Supreme Court reversed that ruling in a 6-3 decision, holding that the trial court correctly applied Missouri law and reinstating the full $185 million verdict.