Roundup Lawsuit

According to reports from Bloomberg, Bayer AG missed a deadline to settle more than 1,800 lawsuits. In September, a judge warned the company that these cases will move at full speed ahead to trials after keeping the cases on hold to allow for negotiations.

However, the Monsanto papers reveal a collaboration between Monsanto and the EPA to halt a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation of glyphosate.

A new report from Bloomberg news stated that Bayer has earmarked more than half-a-billion dollars to defend itself against Roundup allegations. Bayer (formerly Monsanto) is currently in settlement talks with lawyers for more than 50,000 U.S. plaintiffs who have sued over the product. While the coronavirus has slowed negotiation talks, the two sides are still working to resolve the issue. However, in a statement, the company indicated that the talks could drag out in the hopes that they come to a deal that is “financially reasonable.”

In the third consecutive U.S. jury verdict against Bayer, a California jury awarded more than $2 billion to a couple who claimed Bayer-Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killer, Roundup, caused their cancer. The May 14 ruling became the largest jury verdict against the company over cancer claims to date. The jury awarded $55 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages to California couple Alva and Alberta Pilliod. However, punitive damages are likely to be reduced because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages to 9:1.

The Pilliods both have Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The couple says that they used Roundup on their property between 1975 and 2011. They filed their lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto in 2011 after Alva, now 77, received a cancer diagnosis in 2011 and Alberta, now 75, received the same cancer diagnosis in 2015.  Individually, the jury awarded Alva $18 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages, and Alberta $37 million in compensatory and $1 billion in punitive damages.

Both are currently in remission. But their trial was expedited due to the risk of relapse and potentially shortened life expectancy.

In its ruling, the Alameda County jury found that Roundup’s design is defective. Further, the jury alleged that the company failed to warn of the herbicide’s cancer risks and that the company acted negligently.

Monsanto was dealt a blow to a motion for summary judgment filed in early January 2019. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria denied the company’s bid for the court to rule that federal insecticide law preempts consumer claims that the company failed to warn that its herbicide is a possible carcinogen.

The judge’s ruling applied to three pending bellwether trials for Roundup. In the motion for summary judgment, Monsanto claimed three things: 1) the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) law preempts consumer claims; 2) EPA label approval preempts calls for state-mandated changes to Roundup labels that warn of potential cancer risks; and 3) that consumers did not provide enough evidence to prove their claims.

Judge Bolanos said she would be willing to reduce the punitive damages owed to Johnson from $250 million to $39 million, if his lawyers agreed. If agreed, Bayer would be left on the hook for $78 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Johnson has until Dec. 7 to decide whether to accept the reduced award amount. If he rejects it, the judge will set a new trial in which the plaintiff and defendant will argue punitive damages.

In May 2018, a 46-year-old California groundskeeper became the first person to take the global seed and chemical company, Monsanto, to court. The court heard DeWayne Johnson’s case in June 2018. Johnson’s suit alleges that the company suppressed evidence that its Roundup product is responsible for causing Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Out of more than 400 lawsuits heard, Johnson’s was the first heard.

On Aug. 10, a California Superior Court jury deliberated for two and a half days before finding that Johnson’s Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was in part due to using glyphosate. The jury ordered Monsanto to pay Johnson $289 million. In addition, the suit states that Johnson regularly used glyphosate to spray fields while working as a groundskeeper at California school.

Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos said in court that Monsanto “acted with malice, oppression or fraud and should be punished for its conduct.”

Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge said that the company is sympathetic to Johnson and his family. However, the company will appeal the court’s decision

In a similar loss for Monsanto, a San Francisco judge allowed hundreds of Roundup lawsuits to proceed to trial on July 10. The allegations in the hundreds of cases involved are similar to Johnson’s.

Monsanto continues to deny that its product is deadly. But experts disagree with the company’s stance.

Regulators in California took the first step to require Monsanto to come with a cancer-warning label. The label was set to go into effect in July 2018. However, a U.S. District Judge in Sacramento blocked the requirement in early 2018. Judge William Shubb sided with Monsanto saying that the warning label is false and misleading. The was ruling came after concluding that almost U.S. regulators have concluded that there is no evidence linking the products main ingredient to cancer.

However, the Monsanto papers reveal a collaboration between Monsanto and the EPA to halt a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation of glyphosate.