Trial News
Litigation Update
Jury awards largest punitive damages verdict to date in Roundup litigation
May 23, 2019In litigation alleging that Monsanto Co.’s weed killer Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a California jury has awarded two plaintiffs $55 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages—the largest verdict so far. This is the third consecutive loss for the defendant, which was acquired by Bayer AG in 2018. At least 13,000 lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes cancer are pending in state courts and federal multidistrict litigation in the Northern District of California. (Pilliod v. Monsanto Co., No. RG17862702 (Cal. Super. Ct. Alameda Cnty. May 13, 2019).)
Alva and Alberta Pilliod used Roundup on their four properties for decades and claimed that the product led to their non-Hodgkin lymphoma. They alleged that the defendant defectively designed the product, failed to warn of its risks, and acted negligently. Roundup is at the center of a firestorm for using glyphosate, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared a probable carcinogen in 2015.
At trial, the Pilliods presented several experts who testified about the carcinogenic effects of the weed killer, including a toxicologist who stated that Monsanto’s Roundup formula was especially toxic because it used polyethoxylated tallow amine or POEA, which is a surfactant that helps liquids dissolve and disperse. The toxicologist explained that POEA allows glyphosate to penetrate the skin and become stored in the body, where it migrates to the bones. Plaintiff experts also alleged that fraudulent studies were submitted as part of Roundup’s EPA pesticide approval process in the 1970s and that the weed killer remained on the market even after the fraud was discovered. Monsanto also has been accused of ghostwriting articles and hiding scientific evidence about glyphosate’s toxicity, which the plaintiffs highlighted as part of their punitive damages argument.
The verdict follows a $289 million award from another California jury last year (which was later reduced by the court), as Trial News previously reported, and an $80 million verdict in March.