Monsanto appeals Roundup cancer verdict

SAN FRANCISCO: Monsanto on Tuesday said it was asking a US appeals court to toss out a damning verdict in a landmark Roundup weed-killer cancer trial and grant it another hearing.

“By its appeal from the judegement and amended judgement, Monsanto also seeks appellate review of the trial court’s order denying Monsanto’s motion for new trial,” an attorney for the agrochemical giant said in a filed notice- of-appeal.

The notice is the first step of the appeal process.

A cancer- stricken grounds keeper last month accepted a reduced damages award in the trial, which focused on weedkiller Roundup and a professional version of the herbicide called Ranger Pro.

Judge Suzanne Bolanos, who presided over the case in California state court, denied Monsanto’s request for a new trial but cut the US$ 289 million damages award to US$ 78 million to comply with a law regarding how punitive damages awards must be calculated.

Bolanos denied a request by Monsanto to toss out the jury’s overall verdict against the company.

Jurors in August unanimously found that Monsanto acted with “malice” and that its weed killers Roundup and Ranger Pro contributed “substantially” to Dewayne “Lee” Johnson’s terminal illness.

The jury ordered Monsanto to pay US$ 250 million in punitive damages along with compensatory damages and other costs, bringing the total figure to nearly US$ 290 million.

Johnson, a California groundskeeper diagnosed in 2014 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma ( NHL) – a cancer that affects white blood cells – says he repeatedly used Ranger Pro while working at a school in Benicia, California.

Monsanto parent company Bayer reiterated in a statement yesterday that “none of the science presented at trial supports the conclusion that glyphosate or the Roundup formulation was a substantial cause of Mr. Johnson’s NHL”.