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 The jury in San Francisco federal court said the company was liable
for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in
punitive damages to Hardeman after finding that Roundup was
defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the
herbicide's cancer risk and that the company acted negligently.
Bayer bought Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion.
The company in a statement on Wednesday said it was disappointed
with the jury's decision and that it would appeal the verdict.
"This verdict does not change the weight of over four decades of
extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that
support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they
are not carcinogenic," Bayer said.
The trial is only the second of more than 11,200 Roundup lawsuits
set to go to trial in the United States. Previous litigation
setbacks and a prior jury verdict against the company have sent
Bayer shares plunging.
The verdict comes after the same jury on March 19 found Roundup to
have been a "substantial factor" in causing Hardeman's cancer,
allowing the trial to proceed to a second phase to determine
liability and damages. Bayer shares fell more than 12 percent after
last week's jury finding.
In the trial's second phase, Hardeman's lawyers were able to present
previously excluded internal documents allegedly showing the
company's efforts to influence scientists and regulators about the
widely-used product's safety.
Lawyers for Hardeman were seen by a Reuters reporter cheering in the
elevator outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
"As demonstrated throughout trial, since Roundup's inception over 40
years ago, Monsanto refuses to act responsibly," Hardeman's lawyers
said in a statement, adding that the company instead focused on
"manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises
genuine and legitimate concerns about Roundup."
'HASN'T SUNK IN'
After the verdict, Hardeman told reporters he was "overwhelmed."
"It hasn't sunk in yet," he said.
Hardeman's case was considered a bellwether trial to help determine
the range of damages and define settlement options for the more than
760 other federal cases pending in the same court before U.S.
District Judge Vince Chhabria.
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In the first trial phase of Hardeman's case, the jury deliberated
for more than four days before finding Roundup responsible for the
man's cancer. Bayer on Wednesday said that was an indication that
jurors were "very likely divided over the scientific evidence."
The company said its appeal would focus on legal rulings by Chhabria,
who allowed some of Hardeman's scientific experts to testify despite
calling plaintiffs' expert opinions "shaky" in a 2018 ruling.
But legal experts have noted that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, which oversees the San Francisco federal court, has
generally been permissive in allowing expert testimony.
Monsanto's Roundup was the first to contain glyphosate, the world's
most widely used weed killer. But it is no longer patent-protected
and many other versions are available. Bayer does not provide sales
figures for the product.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the European Chemicals
Agency and other regulators have found that glyphosate is not likely
carcinogenic to humans. The World Health Organization's cancer arm
in 2015 reached a different conclusion, classifying glyphosate as
"probably carcinogenic to humans."
In the first U.S. Roundup trial, another California man was awarded
$289 million in August after a state court jury found Roundup caused
his cancer. That award was later reduced to $78 million and is on
appeal.
Hardeman's case featured a significant difference from that trial
after Chhabria decided to split cases before him into two phases:
one to decide causation on purely scientific grounds, the other to
determine Bayer's potential liability and damages only if the jury
first ruled that the weed killer was a substantial factor in causing
cancer.
That decision had been seen as beneficial to Bayer. Legal experts
said the jury's verdict in the first phase of the Hardeman case was
a significant setback, narrowing the company's legal options going
forward.
Chhabria has scheduled another bellwether trial for May and a third
trial is likely to also take place this year. All three will be
split into causation and liability phases.
Bayer is also scheduled to face another Roundup trial in California
state court beginning on March 28 and at least two trials in
Missouri state court in the fall.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage in San Francisco; Writing by Tina
Bellon in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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