Monsanto Attempts To Flip The $289 Million Roundup Verdict

Introduction

The manufacturer of the controversial weedkiller Roundup seeks to overturn the $289 million verdict granted by a San Francisco jury favoring a groundskeeper, who claims he developed Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) due to glyphosate exposure while using Roundup and Ranger Prov herbicides.

Monsanto continues to disagree about glyphosate's role in causing NHL and argues that enough scientific evidence was not presented during the trial to support the plaintiff's claim. However, in August the jury found Monsanto liable for failing to warn the plaintiff and other consumers about Roundup’s cancer side-effect. The jury indicates the company must pay $39 million in compensatory damages and another $250 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff for its negligent actions. In a recent post-trial motion, Monsanto asked Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos of California to hold the verdict, reduce the award or grant a new trial. A hearing motion to discuss the same has been scheduled for October 10, 2018.

Apart from the plaintiff's case, Monsanto faces more than 8,000 product liability lawsuits each raising a similar allegation. Roundup's multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2741; In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation) is presided over by Judge Vince Chhabria, in the U.S. District Court of San Francisco. A series of bellwether trials are scheduled for 2019; the first one to go for trial is plaintiff Jeff Hall's case in February 2019 in the City of St. Louis.

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