Monsanto wants $289M award in Roundup cancer suit tossed
SAN FRANCISCO — Agribusiness company Monsanto has asked a San Francisco judge to throw out a jury's $289 million award to a former school groundskeeper who said the company's Roundup weed killer left him dying of cancer.
DeWayne Johnson failed to prove that Roundup or similar herbicides caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and presented no evidence that Monsanto executives were malicious in marketing Roundup, attorneys for Monsanto said in court documents filed late Tuesday.
Attorneys for Johnson had no immediate comment. Johnson's lawsuit is among hundreds alleging Roundup caused cancer, but it was the first one to go to trial.
Johnson sprayed Roundup and a similar product, Ranger Pro, at his job as a pest control manager at a San Francisco Bay Area school district, according to his attorneys. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2014 at age 42.
A San Francisco jury last month determined that Roundup contributed to Johnson's cancer, and Monsanto should have provided a label warning of a potential health hazard.
Johnson's attorneys have said the jury verdict would bolster the other Roundup lawsuits.
Many government regulators have rejected a link between the active ingredient in Roundup — glyphosate — and cancer. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection.