Armour v. Monsanto Co.

995 F. Supp. 2d 1273, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12842, 2014 WL 411719
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedFebruary 3, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 2:13-CV-01408-KOB
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 995 F. Supp. 2d 1273 (Armour v. Monsanto Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Armour v. Monsanto Co., 995 F. Supp. 2d 1273, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12842, 2014 WL 411719 (N.D. Ala. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KARON OWEN BOWDRE, Chief Judge.

This matter comes before the court on “Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.” (Armour, Doc. 18). Plaintiffs bring this action under Rule 60(d) seeking to declare void the September 9, 2003 final judgment in Tolbert, et al. v. Monsanto Company, et al., Case No. 2:01-cv-01407-KOB. (Armour, Doc. 1). Defendants filed a motion to dismiss under Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), arguing that Plaintiffs’ complaint fails to satisfy the standard for an independent action in equity, that Plaintiffs have failed to state a plausible claim that the Tolbert final judgment is void, that Plaintiffs’ claims are barred by principles of estoppel, that Plaintiffs’ class allegations do not satisfy the requirements of Rule 23, and that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear this case. The court finds that Plaintiffs have not met the standard for a Rule 60(d) independent action; therefore, Defendants’ motion is due to be GRANTED and Plaintiffs’ complaint is due to be DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.

I. FACTS

For the purposes of this motion, the court considers the facts as alleged in Plaintiffs’ complaint, as well as the record in Tolbert.1

Prior to September 1, 1997, a company formerly known as Monsanto Company operated an agricultural products business, a pharmaceuticals and nutrition business, and a chemical products business. Today, the pharmaceutical aspect of the business is owned by Pharmacia — a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. — and the chemical aspect of the business is owned by Solutia. [1276]*1276Monsanto retains the agricultural aspect of the business and Monsanto, Pharmacia, and Solutia are three separate entities. (Armour; Doc. 1, ¶ 3).

The Tolbert case arose out of disputes surrounding polychlorinated byphenyls (“PCBs”) that Monsanto Company manufactured and released in Anniston, Alabama. On September 9, 2003, following over two years of complex litigation, Judge U.W. Clemon of the Northern District of Alabama entered a Final Judgment and Order (Tolbert, doc. 218) incorporating a $300 million Settlement Agreement and Global Settlement Agreement. According to the Armour complaint, the Tolbert Settlement “was represented to the Court to be 18,000 individual claims for injuries and damages to person and real property as a result of exposure to [PCBs].” {Armour, Doc. 1, ¶ 4). Another related pair of state court cases, Abernathy v. Monsanto Company, et al., C.A. No. CV-1996-269 and C.A. No. CV-2001-832, “supposedly [involved] 3500 individual plaintiffs” and also settled for $300 million. (Armour, Doc. 1, ¶ 7).

The court divided the settlement funds between the Tolbert Qualified Settlement Fund, which distributed the funds to and for the benefit of the Tolbert Plaintiffs via the Settlement Administrator, and a medical clinic that Defendants were to establish in Calhoun County, Alabama according to certain specifications contained in the Agreement.

The Final Judgment and Order states: The terms of the Settlement Agreement and this Final Judgment and Order shall be forever binding on all Plaintiffs (as defined in paragraph 11), as well as their heirs, executors and administrators, successors and assigns; and those terms shall be res judicata and have other preclusive effect in all pending and future claims, lawsuits, or other proceedings maintained or on behalf of any such persons, to the extent that such claims, lawsuits, or other proceedings involve PCBs in Anniston, Alabama or other claims that could have been raised by this action or are otherwise encompassed by this action and this Final Order and Judgment.

{Tolbert, Doc. 218, ¶ 10).

Paragraph 11 defines the Plaintiffs as follows:

The Final Judgment and Order shall be binding on all parties to this action and on the entities that have accepted performance or payment obligations under the written settlement documents. Plaintiffs to be bound shall be defined as all persons named as plaintiffs in any complaint or amended complaint filed in these actions to date, together with any person not so named but subject to the tolling agreement between the parties. The Court hereby orders plaintiffs to identify all persons subject to such tolling agreement as an additionally named plaintiff within thirty (30) days after entry of this Final Judgment and Order.

{Tolbert, Doc. 218, ¶ 11).

On October 9, 2013, pursuant to Paragraph 11 of the Final Judgment and Order, Plaintiffs filed a final “Consolidated, Amended, and Restated Complaint,” that incorporated the complete list of Plaintiffs in Tolbert by reference to three different appendices. (Tolbert, Doc. 228). According to the Armour complaint, “[a]t least 7169 of the individual plaintiffs in the Tolbert ... case were not before the Court at the time of the ‘Final Judgment And Order’ approving the settlement.” (Armour; Doc. 1, ¶ 11). All of the Armour Plaintiffs were included in the Consolidated, Amended, and Restated Complaint via one of the three appendices. (See Armour, Doc. 228, Appendix A; Armour, Doc. 228, Appendix B; Armour, Doc. 54, Appendix A2).

[1277]*1277In the Armour complaint, Plaintiffs claim that “the Court lacked personal and/or subject matter jurisdiction of at least 7,159 individual Plaintiffs and their claims at the time it approved the settlement of this case and attempted to bind them by the judgment. Since the Court lacked jurisdiction, the Final Judgment And Order is void.” (Armour; Doc. 1, ¶ 12).

II. PROCEDURAL POSTURE

The Tolbert case, upon which the Armour complaint is based, was filed on May 31, 2001 and settled on September 9, 2003. Since that time, the Northern District of Alabama has overseen the administration of the Tolbert Qualified Settlement Fund, first by Judge demon until January 2009, then by Magistrate Judge Paul W. Greene until October 2012, and now by the undersigned.

A subset of Tolbert Plaintiffs filed this case, Armour, on July 30, 2013. After the filing of the Armour complaint, the Defendants in Tolbert filed an “Expedited Motion of Monsanto Company, Pharmacia, LLC, and Solutia, Inc. for an Injunction to Protect this Court’s Final Judgment.” (Tolbert, Doc. 938). The Tolbert Defendants filed this motion in the Tolbert action, seeking to enjoin the Armour Plaintiffs from proceeding with the Armour action. After extensive briefing, the court denied the motion for an injunction, holding that a Rule 60 independent action was a legitimate method for challenging a final judgment, but withholding judgment on the issue of whether the Armour complaint met the requirements for a Rule 60 independent action. (Tolbert, Doc. 960). The Tolbert Defendants have appealed this ruling to the Eleventh Circuit, where it currently awaits decision. (Tolbert, Doc. 965). Defendants filed the motion to dismiss that is before the court in this case on November 8, 2013. The matter has been fully briefed. (Armour, Docs. 19, 30, 32).

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

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Related

Clarence Armour v. Monsanto Company
625 F. App'x 982 (Eleventh Circuit, 2015)
Wright v. Poole
81 F. Supp. 3d 280 (S.D. New York, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
995 F. Supp. 2d 1273, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12842, 2014 WL 411719, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armour-v-monsanto-co-alnd-2014.