By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, Related Press Enterprise Author
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto father or mother Bayer to pay practically $2.1 billion in damages to a person who says the corporate’s Roundup weed killer precipitated his most cancers, in accordance with attorneys representing the plaintiff.
The decision marks the newest in a long-running sequence of courtroom battles Monsanto has confronted over its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical large says it’s going to enchantment the decision, reached in a Georgia courtroom late Friday, in efforts to overturn the choice.
The penalties awarded embrace $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, legislation corporations Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC stated in an announcement. That marks one of many largest verdicts in a Roundup-related case to this point.
Plaintiff John Barnes filed his lawsuit in opposition to Monsanto in 2021, looking for damages associated to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Arnold & Itkin legal professional Kyle Findley, the lead trial lawyer on the case, stated the decision will assist put his consumer in a greater place to get the therapy he wants going ahead.
“It’s been a long road for him … and he was happy that the truth related to the product (has) been exposed,” Findley informed The Related Press on Sunday. He known as the decision an “important milestone” after “another example of Monsanto’s refusal to accept responsibility for poisoning people with this toxic product.”
Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, has continued to dispute claims that Roundup causes most cancers. However the firm has been hit with greater than 177,000 lawsuits involving the weedkiller and put aside $16 billion to settle circumstances.
In an announcement, Monsanto stated Friday’s verdict “conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide.” The corporate added that it continues “to stand fully behind the safety” of Roundup merchandise.
For quite a lot of crops — together with corn, soybeans and cotton — Roundup is designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist the weedkiller’s lethal impact. It permits farmers to provide extra whereas conserving the soil by tilling it much less.
Some research affiliate Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, with most cancers, though the U.S. Environmental Safety Company has stated it’s not more likely to be carcinogenic to people when used as directed. Nonetheless, quite a few lawsuits over the weedkiller allege glyphosate does trigger non-Hodgkin lymphoma, arguing that Monsanto has did not warn the general public about severe dangers for years.
Findley stated that proof referring to Barnes’ case present “many years of cover-ups” and “backroom dealings.” He accused Monsanto of ignoring a number of scientific research associated to the toxicity of Roundup and stated the corporate “tried to find ways to persuade and distract and deny the connection between this product and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
Friday’s determination marks the fourth Roundup-related verdict that Findley’s group has received to this point — the biggest of which was awarded in Philadelphia in January 2024, with damages totaling $2.25 billion. And he stated his legislation agency has “many more clients who are similarly situated as Mr. Barnes.”
Monsanto, in the meantime, additionally maintains that it “remains committed to trying cases” — and argues its wider report of Roundup-related litigation continues to bolster the security of its merchandise. The corporate stated it has prevailed in 17 of the final 25 associated trials and “jury verdicts were reduced 90% overall” in previous circumstances which were finalized.
Bayer has just lately renewed and expanded an effort throughout a handful of U.S. states to guard pesticide corporations from claims they did not warn {that a} product causes most cancers, if labeling in any other case complies with EPA laws. The corporate and different business helps argue that litigation prices are unstainable and will impression Roundup’s future availability. However opponents stress that such laws would restrict accountability.
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