Reuters reports that the crop protection product company Bayer failed to persuade a California appeals court to overturn a verdict favoring a school groundskeeper who claimed its Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, but the court reduced the amount of damages to $20.5 million. The new damages amount is far less than the $289.2 million a San Francisco jury initially awarded and represents an additional 74% reduction from what the initial trial judge had reduced to $78.5 million.
If the appeals court’s July 20 ruling is upheld, the verdict and payout could make it harder for Bayer to resolve lawsuits by other plaintiffs, Reuters reports. Bayer inherited liability for the lawsuits when it bought Monsanto Co., which had produced Roundup, for $63 billion in 2018.
Bayer said it may appeal to the California Supreme Court, calling the verdict inconsistent with the evidence and the law. Bayer has long said regulators have deemed glyphosate safe.
In related news, Bayer’s litigation to settle other Roundup claims by committing nearly $11 billion to a settlement may be in question due to a U.S. District Court judge threatening to reject part of the deal centered on potential future claims. As part of that agreement, Bayer has pledged to set up an independent science panel to determine whether Roundup can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma as the plaintiffs claim. If the experts can’t find a causal connection, new class members would be barred from suing Bayer. Out of the $11 billion settlement, $1.25 billion would be set aside to support the research and any payments to those who develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
