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Judge rejects Bayer's attempt to limit legal liability for future Roundup cancer claims

Last Thursday, Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the federal judge overseeing nationwide Roundup litigation, denied Bayer’s latest attempt to limit its legal liability from $11.6 billion to $2 billion for future cancer claims associated with Roundup weedkiller, saying parts of the plan were “clearly unreasonable” and unfair to cancer sufferers.

The rejected settlement is part of a broader $11.6 billion agreement to resolve Roundup lawsuits in the U.S. from about 125,000 consumers and farmers.

Chhabria said the settlement to pay as much as $2 billion to resolve future claims is “clearly unreasonable” for consumers who are exposed to Roundup but aren’t yet diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and may not be for a decade or longer.”

Bayer reacted by stating Thursday: “While the company will remain in the residential lawn and garden market, it will immediately engage with partners to discuss the future of glyphosate-based products in the U.S. residential market, as the overwhelming majority of claimants in the Roundup litigation allege that they used Roundup Lawn and Garden products,” Bayer said in reaction to the denial by the courts.

“There will be no product recall,” Liam Condon, head of Bayer’s crop-science unit in relation to the continued residential use of Roundup, said. “What we’re discussing with our partners is the future of the active ingredient, that’s all.”

Glyphosate-containing products in the U.S. residential market bring in about 300 million euros in annual revenue, according to Bayer.

In 2018 environmental lawyer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. son of the late U.S. Senator, Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy and nephew of the late President, John F. Kennedy, and his team, won a historic $290 million landmark case against agricultural giant Monsanto and its glyphosate-based product “Roundup” claiming the product likely caused the cancer of their client, plaintiff Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper.

A federal appeals court upheld a $25 million award against agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. May 14, in a lawsuit that alleged another California man, Edwin Hardeman, developed cancer from exposure to its bestselling weed killer, Roundup.

In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Monsanto's appeal of punitive damages awarded in 2019 by a San Francisco jury.

The jurors found that Edwin Hardeman proved Roundup’s design was defective, it lacked sufficient cancer warnings and its manufacturer was negligent. They initially awarded Hardeman more than $80 million in damages, but a judge later reduced the punitive portion of the award, bringing the total to around $25 million.

Hardeman blamed his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma on decades of using Roundup products to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his San Francisco Bay Area property.

The appellate court ruling said evidence from the case supported a conclusion that Monsanto acted with "indifference to or a reckless disregard of the health or safety of others” and thus was liable for punitive damages.

And while the initial punitive award figure was excessive, the reduced amount was legal, the ruling said.

An email to Monsanto representatives seeking comment was not immediately returned.

However, Monsanto has long said studies have established that glyphosate, the active ingredient in its widely used weed killer, is safe.

Hardeman's suit was one of many by thousands of people who contend that Monsanto's products caused their cancers.

Monsanto was acquired by the German chemical giant Bayer several years ago. Bayer agreed last year to pay $12 billion to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits and deal with future claims.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also the chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a prominent organization working to end public health policies and practices that are harming children, including some vaccine policies.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

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