Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / What the Supreme Court, Uber MDL, and Paraquat Have in Common Right Now

Transcript

What the Supreme Court, Uber MDL, and Paraquat Have in Common Right Now · The Jon and Marc Podcast

• 0:09
  Welcome back to Tortalk. This is our first full episode
• 0:12
  of the year. Last week we did the Tortalk
• 0:15
  Power Rankings, but now we're back in 2026 with our first
• 0:19
  update of the year. After a slow start to 2026,
• 0:23
  things are really picking up in the mass tort world with a busy
• 0:26
  doctor. To topics and rulings, we have
• 0:29
  Joe Hey Attini here for the updates.
• 0:31
  What's going on for today's episode?
• 0:34
  Yeah, thanks for having me. Like you mentioned, a really
• 0:36
  busy month coming up and Mass Torts.
• 0:39
  Excited to give all the people the updates on what we're
• 0:42
  watching. All right, let's get started
• 0:44
  with the first one. This week, we heard from the
• 0:46
  Supreme Court on the Boy Scouts bankruptcy settlement.
• 0:50
  What did the Supreme Court decide to do with the appeal
• 0:53
  from 75 survivors? As you mentioned, Mark, we had a
• 0:57
  decision come down in the mass tort world from the Supreme
• 0:59
  Court. Really rare that this ever
• 1:01
  happened. So that's why it's at the top of
• 1:03
  our agenda. But as you remember, back in
• 1:06
  2022, there was a settlement for survivors of sexual abuse from
• 1:12
  the Boy Scouts. It went through the bankruptcy
• 1:14
  process. It was approved back then in
• 1:17
  2022. A lot of appeals and winding,
• 1:20
  but basically what happened was 75 victims.
• 1:23
  They appealed up to the Supreme Court and said they should be
• 1:26
  able to get out of the settlement and sue other
• 1:29
  organizations or individuals outside of Boy Scouts who
• 1:33
  contributed some funds potentially for the settlement.
• 1:36
  The Supreme Court ultimately said that they weren't able to
• 1:39
  do that. And because the plan had already
• 1:41
  been approved before a similar ruling on an issue came down in
• 1:46
  the Purdue opioid bankruptcy, the bankruptcy stuck.
• 1:49
  And what this means is that about 1.6 billion that's been
• 1:54
  sitting in escrow while the appeals are pending should start
• 1:57
  getting dispersed to the victims later this year.
• 2:00
  It's fantastic news. Yeah, it's a good decision, what
• 2:04
  we were all hoping for. This case has been pending for
• 2:06
  way too long. Finally, some of the victims get
• 2:09
  some compensation. Absolutely.
• 2:11
  Before getting into our next topic, everyone following along,
• 2:15
  please like and subscribe so you get notifications every time we
• 2:18
  drop a new episode. We drop it on YouTube, LinkedIn
• 2:21
  every week, and then we send it out on our newsletter.
• 2:23
  Back to it. The Supreme Court's been busy.
• 2:26
  In addition to the Supreme Court weighing in on the Boy Scouts
• 2:29
  bankruptcy, we are waiting to hear from the court on the round
• 2:32
  of appeal. How will that play out, Joe?
• 2:35
  Yeah. So another big issue in front of
• 2:37
  the Supreme Court in the mass tort world.
• 2:39
  So on the docket in the roundup appeal, there's a note that
• 2:43
  indicated it was distributed to conference for this Friday on
• 2:48
  January 16th. So what that means is during
• 2:52
  this private conference with the justices, they'll review the
• 2:56
  red, they'll review all of the briefs and the petition in this
• 2:59
  Roundup appeal and ultimately come out and decide whether to
• 3:03
  grant or deny cert, which means they'll decide whether to hear
• 3:07
  the case or not. So at issue is whether or not
• 3:10
  the failure to warm claims are preempted by the EPA.
• 3:14
  That said, according to Monsanto and Bear, they didn't need to
• 3:19
  put a cancer warning on there. So how it's been playing out so
• 3:23
  far is this time next week, we'll probably have a ruling
• 3:26
  from the Supreme Court on whether or not they're going to
• 3:28
  take up this preemption issue. It's going to be a huge ruling
• 3:33
  impact beyond just Roundup. But don't forget what Seth told
• 3:37
  us on a previous edition of Tour Talk.
• 3:40
  Even if the plaintiffs lose, the cases still go forward.
• 3:43
  Monsanto and Roundup knows that, but it will be a victory for the
• 3:47
  bad guys. Gotcha.
• 3:48
  So if the Supreme Court decides to take it up, how long will it
• 3:52
  be before we hear from them? We'll get a decision before the
• 3:55
  end of the term in the summer, so by the end of June 26th we'll
• 3:59
  have a decision. Moving on, the first mass tour
• 4:02
  bellwether trial is underway in the Uber sex assault MDL.
• 4:06
  What can we expect from this trial?
• 4:07
  Huge trial like you were mentioning, it's going on in the
• 4:11
  Uber sex abuse. As you remember, last year in
• 4:15
  the state court proceeding, there was a verdict where it was
• 4:18
  found that Uber was negligent in hiring the driver, but we were
• 4:23
  unable, according to the jury, to establish causation between
• 4:27
  that negligence and the plaintiff's injuries.
• 4:29
  In this case. We're out in federal court in
• 4:32
  Arizona. The case is being tried.
• 4:35
  It's probably going to last a couple weeks and the plaintiff
• 4:37
  in this case is alleging that they were raped from this driver
• 4:40
  with Uber, who the allegations are failed to properly
• 4:44
  investigate and do background check on the driver.
• 4:47
  It's going to be a hard fought case and ultimately we'll get a
• 4:50
  verdict. I expect one to come down in
• 4:53
  about two to three, three weeks. Hopefully we can get a win here
• 4:56
  and then that leads to some settlement discussions in this
• 4:59
  very important case. Yeah, that docket has been
• 5:02
  growing pretty significantly over 2025.
• 5:04
  Hopefully we'll see some someones come down in 2026.
• 5:08
  Moving on to Paraquad, the EPA announced that it is reviewing
• 5:11
  the safety of this controversial herbicide.
• 5:15
  How will that impact this litigation and any upcoming
• 5:17
  trials? Yeah, a lot of pressure coming
• 5:20
  down on the manufacturer as a paraquat.
• 5:22
  As you know, it's banned in many, many countries.
• 5:25
  The plaintiff's position is it's unsafe and it can cause
• 5:29
  Parkinson's disease. The EPA just came out and said
• 5:32
  it's now reassessing whether or not it's safe for use and
• 5:36
  they're requiring at the manufacturers provide data and
• 5:40
  information proving and establishing that it's safe on
• 5:44
  these day-to-day uses. So they want more detail, more
• 5:47
  data than was previously provided.
• 5:50
  That's adding some additional pressure on the manufacturers.
• 5:54
  It was reported last year in the MDL, there was a settlement
• 5:57
  encompassing some of the cases. While that's making it way
• 6:01
  through the settlement process in Philadelphia state court, we
• 6:05
  have about 1600 cases pending. That litigation is moving
• 6:09
  forward. Every case so far that's gotten
• 6:12
  up to trial, the defendants ultimately settled and now we're
• 6:15
  working to get the first case to trial in Philadelphia Court of
• 6:18
  Common Pleas. That could happen in the first
• 6:21
  quarter, but if something bad comes down from the EPAI, don't
• 6:25
  see any other option for the defendants besides settling
• 6:28
  these all out. Another great sign hopefully
• 6:30
  going into 2026. Like I predicted, 2026 is the
• 6:34
  year of the settlement. That's what we're all hoping
• 6:36
  for, but we finally have a lot of pressure on the defendants.
• 6:39
  It's coming from different fronts.
• 6:41
  That's what we need in these litigations.
• 6:43
  We need the EPA, we need the Supreme Court, we need the state
• 6:47
  court, we need the MDL, we need the plaintiffs attorneys.
• 6:50
  Just keep pushing, pushing, pushing.
• 6:52
  Eventually that gets us to the table and get these settlements.
• 6:56
  A lot going on heating up here in 2026.
• 6:59
  This is our first full tour talks of 2026.
• 7:02
  I'm very excited to see what's happening.
• 7:03
  A lot of action going into the year.
• 7:05
  Yeah, a lot. We'll keep everybody updated.
• 7:08
  And don't forget, come see us down at National Trial Lawyers
• 7:12
  in Miami at the end of the month.
• 7:14
  We'll be down there doing a live version of Tour Talk with Mark
• 7:17
  and John. Make sure you come visit us.
• 7:19
  If you want to reach out to us, reach out to us.
• 7:21
  We'll be there filming non-stop Monday and Tuesday.
• 7:24
  And we think we get in Sunday night, but we'll have the whole
• 7:26
  crew down there recording. Joe, thank you again for this
• 7:29
  episode. Thank you for listening in to
• 7:31
  the most valuable 10 minutes in mass torts.
• 7:33
  Thanks, Mark.