SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A California appeals court has rejected calls from both sides to rehear its decision in a key lawsuit alleging a groundskeeper who used Roundup weed-killer developed cancer because of it.
On Aug. 18, the First Appellate District let stand its July judgment that affirmed Monsanto is liable for the non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma of Dewayne Johnson while also cutting the verdict from $78.5 million to $21.5 million by slashing punitive damages and future noneconomic damages.
The original jury award was $289 million but the trial judge reduced it. Plaintiffs attorneys are also pursuing appeals as the award continues to get cut.
“Although the jury could have accepted Monsanto’s characterization of its conduct as simply demonstrating advocacy for a ‘well-supported belief that its products were safe,’ we reject the argument that the jury was required to do so,” the court ruled in July.
“To begin with, substantial evidence was presented from which the jury could infer that Monsanto acted with a conscious disregard for public safety by discounting legitimate questions surrounding glyphosate’s genotoxic effect and failing to conduct adequate studies.”
The company is working on a mass settlement of thousands of lawsuits and has maintained the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, does not cause cancer. Nearly every regulatory body in the world agrees, with the exception of the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Its former non-voting chairman, Chris Portier, signed on as a paid plaintiff expert shortly after IARC reached its conclusion.
The U.S. Department of Justice has disagreed, and a California judge recently ruled it was wrong to place one of California’s infamous may-cause-cancer Prop 65 labels on the product.