Judge reduces $2B award in Monsanto case
OAKLAND, Calif. — A judge has cut a jury award in a lawsuit that found that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused cancer in a California couple from $2.055 billion to $87 million, marking the third time an award in a lawsuit over the disputed chemical has been cut by a judge.
The judge said Thursday that evidence supports the jury’s conclusion that Roundup was “a substantial factor” in causing nonHodgkin’s lymphoma in Alva and Alberta Pilliod, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith said evidence also supported the finding that Monsanto knew the herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous and failed to warn the couple from Livermore, California.
But Smith said the punitive damages were much higher than constitutional limits set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has said should generally be no more than four times the amount of damages awarded as compensation to victims.
A jury in May awarded the Pilliod’s $1 billion each in punitive damages in addition to a combined $55 million in compensatory damages.
Smith reduced punitive damages to $70 million. She also reduced the compensatory money awarded for past and future pain and suffering to $17 million.
The couple had anticipated the reduction, and their lawyer said the overall ruling was “a major victory.”
Although “the reduction in damages does not fairly capture the pain and suffering experienced by Alva and Alberta,” attorney Brent Wisner said in a statement, “the judge rejected every argument Monsanto raised and sustained a very substantial verdict.”
Monsanto’s parent company, the German pharmaceutical firm Bayer AG, said it would appeal.