New York – A jury in Georgia ordered Bayer, father of Monsanto, who pays almost $ 2.1 billion in damage to a man who says that the company’s grass killer caused his cancer, according to lawyers representing the plaintiff.
The verdict marks the latest in a long -term judicial battles series Monsanto has faced his rounded herbicide. The agrochemical giant says that the verdict will appeal, reached in a Georgia court room on Friday night, in efforts to cancel the decision.
The sanctions granted include $ 65 million in compensatory damages and $ 2 billion in punitive damage, Arnold law firms AND Itkin Llp and Kline AND Specter PC said in a statement. What brand one of the greatest The legal agreements arrived in a case related to the summary to date.
The plaintiff John Barnes filed his lawsuit against Monsanto in 2021, seeking damage related to the lymphoma of his non -Hodgkin. Arnold AND Itkin’s lawyer, Kyle Findley, the main litigating lawyer of the case, said the verdict will help put his client in a better position to obtain the treatment he needs in the future.
“It has been a long way for him … and I was happy that the truth related to the product (it has been exposed,” Findley told The Associated Press on Sunday. He called the verdict an “important milestone” after “another example of Monsanto’s refusal to accept the responsibility of poisoning people with this toxic product.”
Bayer, based in Germany, who acquired Monsanto in 2018, has continued to dispute statements that Roundup causes cancer. But the company has been beaten with More than 177,000 demands involving Weedkiller and book $ 16 billion to resolve cases.
In a statement, Monsanto said Friday’s verdict “conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory agencies and their scientific evaluations worldwide.” The company added that it continues “to support the safety” of rounded products.
For a variety of crops, including corn, soybeans and cotton, the summary is designed to function with genetically modified seeds that resist the fatal effect of the evil. It allows farmers to produce more while retaining the soil by raising it less.
Some studies associate Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, with cancer, although the United States Environmental Protection Agency He said It is not likely to be carcinogen for humans when used as indicated. Even so, numerous demands about the Weedkiller claim that glyphosate causes no Hodgkin lymphoma, arguing that Monsanto has not warned the public about serious risks for years.
Findley said that the evidence related to Barnes’s case shows “many years of cover -ups” and “treatment in the back room.” He accused Monsanto of ignoring several scientific studies related to the toxicity of the summary and said that the company “tried to find ways to persuade and distract and deny the connection between this product and non -Hodgkin lymphoma.”
Friday’s decision marks the fourth verdict related to the summary that the Findley team has won to date, the largest of which was awarded in Philadelphia in January 2024, with damage for a total of $ 2.25 billion. And he said that his law firm has “many more clients who are located similarly such as Mr. Barnes.”
Monsanto, meanwhile, also argues that “it is still committed to proof cases,” and argues its broader record of Rodeo -related litigation continues to reinforce the safety of its products. The company said it has prevailed in 17 of the last 25 related tests, while some prizes of previous damage have been reduced.
Bayer has Recently renewed and expanded an effort in a United States To protect the pesticide companies from the statements, they did not warn that a product causes cancer, if the labeling complies differently with the regulations of the EPA. The company and other industry supports argue that litigation costs are non -existent and could affect Roundup’s future availability. But opponents emphasize that such legislation would limit responsibility.
