Updated at 5:24 p.m.
Attorneys for Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, filed a motion on Monday, seeking to temporarily halt demolition of Burlington High School buildings.
Bayer is making the case that “premature demolition of the school would result in the destruction of evidence in pending litigation,” according to an emailed statement from the company.
School officials announced earlier this month they plan to begin tearing down buildings at the school campus in January.
Bayer said it filed the motion in response to a personal injury lawsuit filed by two former educators, but it believes the motion would also apply to the school district’s lawsuit, filed in federal court last week.
“Simply put, Burlington High School is the most critical evidence in both of these cases, which arise from the alleged presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (‘PCBs’) in the high school buildings,” the motion said.
The former educators allege that they suffered from medical conditions caused by working in the high school, which was found to be contaminated by PCBs, which were commonly used in industrial and consumer products until their production was banned in the United States in 1979 by the Toxic Substances Control Act. Their suit argues Monsanto and related companies should pay for expenses related to those medical conditions.
According to the U.S. Environmental Agency, PCBs were popular because they weren’t flammable, were chemically stable, and had a high boiling point and electrical insulating properties. PCBs were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications, including electrical and hydraulic equipment, paint, plastics, rubber products, and pigment and dyes.
In its lawsuit, the school district alleges that Monsanto is responsible for the PCB contamination and should pay for the cost of demolition, remediation and construction of a new high school.
In Bayer’s motion, attorneys wrote that they proposed a stipulation to the school district, giving the defendants until “no later than March 15, 2023” to conduct inspections, but the district rejected that timeline.
“The stakes are simply too high to play a game of chicken with a wrecking ball,” Bayer attorneys wrote in the motion.
“Defendants are not seeking a lengthy, protracted delay,” the motion stated. “Instead, defendants request that the court pause demolition for no more than a reasonable period of time to allow defendants’ experts to review critical background documentation and inspect the school.”
The attorneys estimated that, after receiving documentation from the school district, their inspection of the high school would take about five days.
Bayer is seeking an emergency hearing on its motion.
The school district wants to start its new high school construction project by beginning demolition of the old building in January. In November, Burlington voters approved borrowing up to $165 million to help pay for an estimated $190 million construction of a new high school.
The Burlington School District declined to comment on Bayer’s motion.
An attorney for the former educators bringing the injury lawsuit against Monsanto could not immediately be reached for comment.
