October 31st, 2005

The Monsanto Company has been dismissed as a defendant in asbestos litigation in Adams County by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The company was one of 270 defendants being sued by employees at the Paper Company in Natchez. The lawsuit alleged that the workers suffered health problems and injuries as a result of asbestos exposure, and Monsanto Company was named because some of its products were at the plant.

In 2004 an Adams County judge had refused to dismiss Monsanto as a defendant. The company appealed, stating that there was no evidence to suggest that its products has been responsible for any asbestos exposure. Earlier in the year, another company was dismissed from the lawsuit because the courts stated that there was no proof to suggest its products caused exposure to asbestos and any resulting ill health.

As a result of the policy adopted from that dismissal, the courts also looked at the Monsanto’s role as a defendant and came to the same conclusion. In a written statement the judge said: "In asbestos litigation in Mississippi, the proper test to be used is the frequency, regularity, and proximity standard to show product identification of the defendants actual products, exposure of the plaintiffs to those products, and proximate causation as to the injuries suffered by the plaintiffs."