A California jury awarded $332 million in the latest Roundup verdict against Monsanto.
Jurors in San Diego County Superior Court sided with plaintiff Mike Dennis, diagnosed at age 51 with a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The jury found that Monsanto failed to warn about the health risks of Roundup, a pesticide, and awarded $325 million in punitive damages.
The jury, which deliberated for four days, did not find that Monsanto was negligent in defectively designing Roundup.
“It is evident that the science that has continued to develop over the last several years clearly establishes Roundup causes NHL,” said Scott Love, of Houston-based Clark, Love & Hutson, who represented Dennis along with Paul Kiesel, of Beverly Hills-based Kiesel Law. “Further, Monsanto has continued to improperly influence regulatory bodies around the world, which has negatively impacted public health, to further their financial gain. We look forward to our next trial with Monsanto.”
A spokesman for Bayer, which owns Monsanto, said in an emailed statement: “We respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this unfounded verdict overturned and the unconstitutionally excessive damage award eliminated or reduced, given that there were significant and reversible legal and evidentiary errors made during this trial.”
The verdict is the third against Monsanto in Roundup trials that began this month. On Oct. 27, a jury awarded $175 million, including $150 million in punitive damages, in the first Philadelphia trial over Roundup.