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The teachers argued in their petition that the Court of Appeals ruling conflicts with the state supreme court's 2023 ruling in Bennett v. United States, which found that the statute of repose for medical malpractice claims violated the Washington Constitution's privileges and immunities clause.

The teachers said that the appellate panel in Erickson upheld the WPLA statute of repose as constitutional without showing it passed the test outlined in Bennett, which involves serving the legislature's stated purpose of curbing insurance costs for businesses.

Among other things, the teachers protested the Court of Appeals' finding that toxic exposure testimony offered by one of the plaintiffs' experts, industrial hygienist Kevin Coghlan, was new and not generally recognized by the scientific community. The panel's two-judge majority erred by ruling out certain calculations by Coghlan, the teachers argued, even though he was simply applying basic math to existing scientific techniques.

"That decision implicates all seven other jury verdicts from seven other trials, and it parts ways with the views of six experienced Washington judges, including five trial judges who were specifically selected for their expertise in complex civil litigation," the teachers stated.

A spokesperson for Monsanto said the plaintiffs' petition "comes as no surprise, as the Erickson appeal decision undercuts their case and should result in the reversal of all the past verdicts in this litigation given the cross-cutting errors cited in the opinion."

Henry Jones of Friedman Rubin PLLP, representing the Sky Valley plaintiffs, said the teachers would file a motion with the state supreme court seeking expedited review.

"Monsanto's main defense has always been 'delay,'" Jones said. "Prompt and final resolution of the issues on appeal will save the court system and the parties an enormous amount of time and money."

According to the petition, since the Court of Appeals ruling, Monsanto has sought to compel the teachers to pay $2 million in costs. The plaintiffs, however, have moved to defer a ruling on costs pending their appeal to the state supreme court.

The three teachers are represented by Deepak Gupta, Gregory A. Beck, and Robert D. Friedman of Gupta Wessler PLLC and Richard H. Friedman, Sean J. Gamble, James A. Hertz, Henry G. Jones, and Ronald J. Park of Friedman Rubin PLLP.

Monsanto is represented by Jennifer L. Campbell, Allison K. Krashan, Farron Curry, CaroLea W. Casas, Jean-Claude André, A. Elizabeth Sternhell-Blackwell, Kenneth Lee Marshall, and Logan M. Rutherford of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.