Settlement Agreement with the City of Seattle Over Alleged PCB Claims
Monsanto has reached a settlement agreement with the City of Seattle to resolve the City’s claims related to PCBs, a legacy product the Company ceased producing in 1977. The settlement will result in the dismissal of the City’s pending case and contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing by the Company.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Monsanto will pay $160 million, including $35 million for PCB remediation. The balance of $125 million will reimburse the City for several unique claims in this case, including a portion of Seattle's contribution to the federally mandated Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund clean-up, which covers multiple pollutants, and legal costs in this protracted litigation. The City of Seattle’s case is an outlier as no other pending municipal opt-out PCB case against Monsanto involves similar circumstances.
The Company did not manufacture PCBs in the Seattle area, discontinued its own legal production of PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies on PCB safety, provided appropriate warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time, and has committed to participation in agency processes where it has been determined to be a potentially responsible party.
Monsanto previously reached a nationwide class action settlement with 2500 local government bodies. The vast majority of the local governments that opted out of this nationwide class action settlement are included in 9 pending municipal opt-out cases. These pending cases are largely grouped around a limited number of waterways and have unique factual and legal circumstances. Monsanto remains committed to defending cases at trial and will only consider settlements when it is in the Company’s interest to do so.
Monsanto has a lawsuit pending in Missouri against six former PCB customers seeking to enforce contracts under which these companies agreed to fully defend and indemnify Monsanto. The Company entered into these indemnity agreements, beginning in 1972, as a condition of continuing to provide these former customers with bulk PCBs for use in their finished products. PCBs were highly valued as nonflammable safety fluids, specified and required by many electrical and building codes as well as insurance companies to protect against fire risk.