David Mitchell, Gretta Hutton et al. v. Monsanto and Bayer

Reference :

S.N.S. 2007, c. 28 / 489864

Complaint date :

July 4, 2019

Status :

Not judged

Place of jurisdiction :

Canada, Halifax

Plaintiffs types :

Farmers, Farm/rural workers, Individuals

Plaintiffs names :

David Mitchell, Gretta Hutton and others

Defendants :

Monsanto, Bayer

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

Raymond Wagner

Case nature :

Civil court

Specificities :

Class action

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

Herbicide, Glyphosate, Roundup

Requests :

Compensate individuals who have been harmed by the failure to warn of the potential harmful effects of the unprotected use of Roundup.

Name of the Court :

Nova Scotia Supreme Court of Halifax, Canada

Jurisdiction level :

Summary :

On July 4, 2019, David Mitchell, Gretta Hutton and over 900 other Canadian farmers filed a request for certification as a class action against the American company Monsanto, acquired in 2018 by the German company Bayer. The class action brought together all those diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma ("NHL") after using and/or being exposed to Roundup® between 1976 and the date of the judgment certifying this class action, as well as their close relatives. Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, is the subject of numerous lawsuits notably for its carcinogenic effects and endocrine disrupting characteristics.

On May 7, 2020, Justice Denise Boudreau of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in Halifax ordered the Plaintiffs to provide additional information in view of their claim, and the Defendant to communicate its conclusions for the purposes of inadmissibility of the certification.

The action was finally abandoned for reasons of efficiency. In fact, as Raymond Wagner, attorney for the plaintiffs, explains, this application for certification as a class action was part of a larger movement of some ten similar applications in Canada, and the plaintiffs attached themselves to the first action to be certified: Jeffrey Deblock v. Monsanto.

Scientific references :

Exposure to Glyphosate-Based Herbicides and Risk for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma : A Meta-Analysis and Supporting Evidence