Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer
Monsanto suffered a major blow with a jury ruling that the company was
liable for a terminally ill man’s cancer, awarding him $289m in damages. Dewayne Johnson, a
46-year-old former groundskeeper, won a huge victory in the landmark case on
Friday, with the jury determining that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his
cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from
exposure. The jury further found that Monsanto “acted with malice or
oppression”.
Johnson’s lawyers
argued over the course of a month-long trial in San Francisco that Monsanto had
“fought science” for years and targeted academics who spoke up about possible
health risks of the herbicide product. Johnson was the first person to take
the agrochemical corporation to trial over allegations that the
chemical sold under the brand Roundup causes cancer.
In the extraordinary
verdict, which Monsanto said it intends to appeal, the jury ruled that the
company was responsible for “negligent failure” and knew or should have known
that its product was “dangerous”. “We were finally able
to show the jury the secret, internal Monsanto documents proving that Monsanto
has known for decades that ... Roundup could cause cancer,” Johnson’s lawyer
Brent Wisner said in a statement. The verdict, he added, sent a “message to
Monsanto that its years of deception regarding Roundup is over and that they
should put consumer safety first over profits”… read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/10/monsanto-trial-cancer-dewayne-johnson-ruling