More than 8,700 lawsuits are now pending against Monsanto over the glyphosate-based weed killer.
Another lawsuit is set to go to trial in St. Louis in October 2018.
August 10, 2018 (upheld October 2018, but verdict reduced) – San Francisco jury orders Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages to Dewayne Johnson, the 46-year-old school groundskeeper diagnosed with terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who used Roundup more than 30 times per year to spray the fields while working.
The jurors deliberated for over two hours before finding that Mr. Johnson’s cancer was at least partly due to glyphosate exposure — the main ingredient in the popular weed killer.
This was the first lawsuit alleging glyphosate causes cancer to go to trial.
Plaintiff’s attorneys noted that this verdict was a “day of reckoning” for Monsanto.
This landmark verdict survived appeal in October 2018 but the California judge decreased the punitive damages won taking the total verdict awarded to groundskeeper DeWayne Johnson $78.5 million.
Judge Bolanos limited the award based on his reading of a Supreme Court case that requires a one-to-one ratio between compensatory and punitive damages.
Since the jury awarded Johnson $39.25 million in compensatory damages, Judge Bolanos reduced punitive damages to match that amount.
Judge Bolanos also noted that it was reasonable for the jury to conclude that Monsanto acted with malice by continuing to market and sell a dangerous product without a warning.
Monsanto continues to deny the link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Monsanto Roundup Lawsuits received the court’s blessing to move forward!
The Honorable Vince Chabria, the federal judge in San Francisco, ruled in favor of the thousands of individuals diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a result of Roundup use.
Monsanto requested to dismiss cases but Judge Chabria held that plaintiffs put forth reliable scientific evidence that exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller can cause cancer.
We look forward to giving our clients their day in court!
February 6th, 2024:
Opening statements were delivered in Cloud v. Monsanto in Delaware Superior Court, where a South Carolina groundskeeper’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. With recent plaintiff victories and strong evidence of exposure due to the decedent’s occupation, this case holds promise.
February 5th, 2024
The 11th Circuit ruled in favor of a Roundup user, allowing a state failure-to-warn claim to proceed, dealing a blow to Bayer’s legal strategy. Bayer’s reliance on appellate outcomes faces scrutiny as litigation progresses.
February 4th, 2024:
New Jersey may emerge as a significant jurisdiction for Roundup lawsuits, with plans to coordinate trials in Atlantic County. Bayer’s headquarters in New Jersey could influence case filings and trial outcomes.
February 2nd, 2024:
Despite attention on state court trials, the Roundup multidistrict litigation (MDL) saw 26 new lawsuits filed last month. One new lawsuit involves a Sarasota resident’s wrongful death claim, alleging Roundup exposure led to lymphoma and eventual death.
February 1st, 2024:
Reuters highlights Bayer’s risky legal strategy, describing the litigation as a “bet-the-company” posture reliant on appellate rulings. Despite confidence in scientific defense, Bayer faces ongoing trial setbacks.
January 31st, 2024:
The average payout for the last six Roundup lawsuits that went to trial, with one resulting in a defense verdict, stands at an impressive $617,387,142.86.
January 1st, 2024:
The Roundup class action MDL in the federal court system, currently comprising just over 4,000 pending cases, experienced a break in the plaintiffs’ trial success streak.
In the recent Jones v. Monsanto case in San Benito County, California, the jury found no liability, snapping the plaintiffs’ five-trial winning streak. While acknowledging that not every case will result in a plaintiff victory, there is optimism for the upcoming trials this month.
A collective of environmental and farmworker organizations, relying on research conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), has alleged that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has permitted the ongoing utilization of the herbicide glyphosate, despite compelling evidence linking it to cancer.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has submitted a petition on behalf of multiple groups, contesting the legality of glyphosate’s registration in the United States.
This petition comes in response to an NIH study that identified genotoxic markers in male farmers who were exposed to elevated levels of glyphosate.
Glyphosate serves as the active component in the widely employed weed killer known as Roundup, and as far back as 2015, the World Health Organization cautioned that it is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Nevertheless, the EPA has refrained from taking action, citing a lack of a comprehensive human health assessment of glyphosate.
The coalition is advocating for the suspension of glyphosate’s use until it conforms to the necessary safety standards or is revoked under federal law.
Glyphosate is prohibited for household use in some countries and banned for public use in others.
Critics contend that the EPA has disregarded glyphosate’s detrimental effects in the past, thereby facilitating its widespread application.
December 6th, 2023:
In another legal setback for Bayer, a Philadelphia jury recently ruled that the company must pay nearly $3.5 million to a woman who claimed her cancer resulted from using Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller.
The jury, after three weeks of trial and two days of deliberation, awarded $462,500 in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages. This marks Bayer’s fifth consecutive loss in similar cases. Another trial is scheduled in Philadelphia next month, and the prediction is that the verdict may surpass the recent $3.5 million award.
Juries across 15 trials awarded victims slightly below $4.5 billion in total, yielding an average Roundup verdict of $300 million.
If this average is applied to the estimated 40,000 remaining cases, the potential cumulative payout could reach $12 trillion. It’s worth noting that this figure may be somewhat distorted due to trials involving multiple plaintiffs.
In a groundbreaking development for the Roundup litigation, a Missouri jury ordered Monsanto to pay over $1.5 billion in damages to three former Roundup users who claimed the weedkiller caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
The state court awarded $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million in punitive damages to each plaintiff. The lawsuit involved Valorie Gunther from New York, Jimmy Draeger from Missouri, and Daniel Anderson from California, all diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The jury found Monsanto responsible for their injuries, citing inadequate warnings about Roundup’s dangers.
Monsanto is appealing a $175 million verdict in a Pennsylvania state court, alleging that the court unduly influenced the jury in a Roundup case.
The company claims the court coerced a consensus without informing parties, allowed prejudicial evidence, and excluded regulatory safety data on glyphosate.
Monsanto argues that the court unfairly pressured the jury to break a deadlock initially at 9-3. Additionally, Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, is challenging the judge’s impartiality and has requested his recusal in a move seen as an attack on both the judge and the mass tort process in Philadelphia.
In a California court case, a jury granted $332 million to Mike Dennis, who sued Monsanto, asserting that his cancer stemmed from prolonged use of the Roundup herbicide.
Mike Dennis, diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2020, connected his illness to glyphosate, Roundup’s active component.
Despite being in remission, his condition remains incurable.
The jury found Monsanto liable for not warning about Roundup’s risks but sided partially with Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, determining that the product’s design wasn’t faulty, and the company wasn’t negligent.
Mike Dennis was awarded $7 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages.
Bayer plans to appeal the decision, alleging legal mistakes and an excessively high damage award.
In a significant legal outcome, a St. Louis jury granted a plaintiff $1.25 million in a case where he alleged that Monsanto’s Roundup was responsible for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The jury’s decision was based on the finding that Monsanto failed to provide sufficient warnings about the potential risks associated with Roundup and its key component, glyphosate.
Furthermore, a separate Philadelphia jury recently handed Monsanto a substantial $175 million verdict in a lawsuit brought by a cancer patient who argued that the company inadequately informed consumers about the presence of carcinogenic substances in the weed killer Roundup.
This verdict concludes the first trial in Philadelphia involving tort claims related to Bayer’s flagship product.
October 2nd, 2023:
In Australia, a significant Monsanto Roundup class action is currently underway, examining whether exposure to Roundup can lead to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This trial, presided over by Justice Michael Lee in federal court in Melbourne, is unique because it does not involve a jury and aims to determine if Roundup causes cancer.
While the outcome won’t directly impact Roundup lawsuits in the United States, if the class action results in a substantial award and a product warning in Australia, it could have effects in the United States and beyond.
The McCostlin case was dismissed today, marking Monsanto’s 9th consecutive victory. The trial judge did not find the plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Barry Boyd, sufficient in establishing a clear link between Roundup and the plaintiff’s NHL diagnosis.
This outcome reinforces the notion that Monsanto tends to avoid strong cases. However, the dynamics are expected to change next month in Philadelphia, where a substantial verdict or a significant confidential settlement is anticipated.
Dr. Donna Farmer, PhD., widely known as the face of Monsanto, testified in McCostlin v. Monsanto case today. Farmer admitted that studies suggesting the weedkiller’s impact on chromosomes were mostly conducted by independent researchers, while research claiming no chromosomal harm was largely funded by Monsanto.
Two trials for Roundup Lawsuits in St. Louis county are scheduled to begin in the coming months. Both cases revolve around plaintiffs who had used Roundup for more than a decade and subsequently received diagnoses of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Meanwhile, the Roundup MDL, which is centralized in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, is ongoing with more than 4,000 individual Roundup Lawsuits consolidated under its jurisdiction.
A trial in a Missouri state court is about to start opening statements, focusing on allegations that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is linked to cancer.
This trial is receiving considerable attention, given that previous trials have favored Monsanto’s stance, contending that the chemical glyphosate in Roundup is not a carcinogen and that the plaintiffs’ illnesses are attributed to other factors.
This trial is taking place in St. Louis County, where Monsanto had previously received a favorable defense verdict in a similar case. The recent ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court has amplified the importance of this trial. Some Roundup cases will continue to be heard in St. Louis City, and there is another trial scheduled for early October. Additionally, there is another Roundup trial slated for later this month in San Diego.
Monsanto has resolved more than 100,000 cases related to Roundup, resulting in payments of around $11 billion. This sum encompasses roughly 80% of the total Roundup claims that were submitted. However, a substantial 30,000 lawsuits remain unresolved, and this count is progressively increasing.
Notably, within the $11 billion settlement designated for prior cases, a fund of $2 billion has been allocated to address future legal actions.
Six plaintiffs filed Roundup lawsuits against Monsanto in St. Louis. Monsanto attempted to change the venue for five of the cases to St. Louis County as one of the injuries originated in Missouri. The circuit court initially denied their request. However, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that, based on the state’s venue statute, the venue for these cases should indeed be moved to St. Louis County because the corporation’s registered agent was located there at the time of filing.
One of the cases will remain in St. Louis City due to a procedural error by Monsanto’s lawyers.
The New York State Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Bayer, accusing the company of deceiving consumers in New York by marketing Roundup as an environmentally safe weed killer despite knowing or should have known about its potential cancer risks.
In an unexpected development, Bayer has recently announced a settlement agreement for $6.9 million to resolve the case. The lawsuit was centered around allegations of violating New York laws pertaining to false and misleading advertising.
Monsanto is currently seeking to bar Dr. Ron Schiff, a key expert witness for the plaintiffs, from providing his opinion testimony.
Monsanto asserts that Dr. Schiff’s views regarding the connection between Roundup and cancer are founded on flawed methodology, making them unreliable and inadmissible.
Additonally, with the aim of changing the course of the litigation, the upcoming trials in Philadelphia regarding the Round up lawsuit are expected to provide a fresh start.
Scheduled to begin in Fall 2023, the trials will potentially yield outcomes similar to those seen in the MDL.
Philadelphia stands out as a jurisdiction recognized for its impartiality towards victims.
At present, the Philadelphia mini-MDL includes around 200 lawsuits related to Roundup and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The Arkansas Supreme Court recently denied Monsanto’s petition to reverse a ruling by a judge in Drew County, which requires Werner Baumann, the former CEO of Bayer, to appear in an Arkansas state court for a Roundup lawsuit.
Bayer CropScience LP and Monsanto Co. have reached a settlement of nearly $7 million with the state of New York regarding false and misleading advertising allegations related to Roundup.
Bayer was accused of making unsupported claims that Roundup products posed no harm to anything beyond weeds and did not endanger the health of animal wildlife.
Additionally, they claimed Roundup products were safer than dish soap, which was contradictory to prior statements.
In a significant update regarding Monsanto’s Roundup, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to intervene in a class settlement worth $39 million.
The settlement, which includes a substantial $14.4 million cy pres award, was challenged by an objector who claimed that the allocation of funds to charity deviated from compensating class members.
However, both the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had previously given their approval to the settlement.
The settlement emerged from allegations made by plaintiffs accusing Monsanto of deceptive practices concerning the health risks associated with the weed killer.
There are still thousands of Roundup cancer claims pending across the United States.
Roundup lawyers are still accepting claims for individuals who would like to go to trial or negotiate a settlement for these cases.
Monsanto requested the full Eleventh Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that the company failed to warn about the health risks associated with Roundup.
The plaintiff, John Carson Sr., claimed that he developed soft-tissue cancer from using the weedkiller.
However, the district court initially dismissed the case.
Bayer then paid Carson, a doctor from Georgia, to appeal the case, leading to the Circuit Court flipping the verdict.
The full Eleventh Circuit has agreed to hear the case.
Monsanto argued that Carson’s claims are preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which disallows state-law labeling or packaging requirements that are different from federal law.
Roundup Weed Killers, the popular herbicide manufactured by Monsanto, is the subject of Roundup lawsuits alleging non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, according to a 2015 report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization.
Roundup Weed Killers is a herbicide that kills broadleaf plants and grasses when applied to the leaves of the plants.
Roundup is the world’s most widely used herbicide and the second-most popular weed killer for residential yards and gardens, according to National Geographic.
Introduced by Monsanto in 1974, Roundup’s popularity increased dramatically in the 1990s when Monsanto introduced “Roundup Ready” crops that were genetically engineered to resist the herbicide so that farmers could apply it liberally on entire fields.
The following countries have banned Roundup:
WARNING!
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) links exposure to glyphosate to non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Swedish study concludes exposure to glyphosate doubled risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma within less than 10 years.
Dr. John Franz, creator of glyphosate, introduced to National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
American study of more than 3,400 farmworkers in Midwest found higher rates of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma associated with glyphosate.
Canadian Study found a dose response relationship between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Monsanto sales surge with new marketing strategy – genetically engineered seeds designed to tolerate Roundup, while weeds around them die.
Monsanto introduces Roundup with glyphosate.
DDT, a commonly used insecticide, is banned in the U.S.
Two nonprofit groups, Beyond Pesticides and the Organic Consumers Association, recently filed a lawsuit against Monsanto alleging that its glyphosate-based product, Roundup, is mislabeled as targeting an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets.
The lawsuits charge that Monsanto knows its representations are false, yet chose to profit off Roundup rather than warn consumers of the health risks associated with the chemical.
More than 8,000 cancer lawsuits are now pending against Monsanto, filed by individuals who allege that they developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma because of glyphosate exposure.
The weed killer is also being added to California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer.
Proposition 65 is a right-to-know California law that voters approved in 1986.
It requires the state to maintain a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm but does not ban or restrict the use of listed chemicals.
However, it does require businesses to provide warnings prior to causing significant exposure to a listed chemical, and also prohibits discharges of the chemical into drinking water sources.
In October 2016, 21 Roundup lawsuits pending in fourteen districts were consolidated into multidistrict litigation in the Northern District of California.
The lawsuits, filed primarily by agricultural and landscape workers who used glyphosate for an extended period of time, make similar allegations.
This includes an allegation that Monsanto knew or should have known about the link between Roundup and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, yet failed to provide proper warnings and instructions about safety measures that should be taken to reduce exposure to glyphosate contained in the popular weed killer.
Many states have a two-year statute of limitations allowing individuals to file a lawsuit two years from the date on which they learned of a possible health connection with a particular product, and given the March 2015 release of the IARC report and the fact that the deadline is looming, cases continue to stream in.
Between state and federal courts, hundreds of Roundup lawsuits have been filed in the U.S.
Experienced Attorney & Legal SaaS CEO
With over 25 years of legal experience, Jessie is an Illinois lawyer, a CPA, and a mother of three. She spent the first decade of her career working as an international tax attorney at Deloitte.
In 2009, Jessie co-founded her own law firm with her husband – which has scaled to over 30 employees since its conception.
In 2016, Jessie founded TruLaw, which allows her to collaborate with attorneys and legal experts across the United States on a daily basis. This hypervaluable network of experts is what enables her to share reliable legal information with her readers!
You can learn more about the Roundup Lawsuit by visiting any of our pages listed below:
Here, at TruLaw, we’re committed to helping victims get the justice they deserve.
Alongside our partner law firms, we have successfully collected over $3 Billion in verdicts and settlements on behalf of injured individuals.
Would you like our help?
At TruLaw, we fiercely combat corporations that endanger individuals’ well-being. If you’ve suffered injuries and believe these well-funded entities should be held accountable, we’re here for you.
With TruLaw, you gain access to successful and seasoned lawyers who maximize your chances of success. Our lawyers invest in you—they do not receive a dime until your lawsuit reaches a successful resolution!
Do you believe you’re entitled to compensation?
Use our Instant Case Evaluator to find out in as little as 60 seconds!
Camp Lejeune’s water contamination issue spanned several decades starting in the 1950s. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to various serious health issues, including cancer, organ diseases, and death.
Research is increasingly suggesting a link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and the development of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism and ADHD, in infants.
Legal action is being taken against manufacturers of Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), a chemical used in fighting fires. The plaintiffs allege that exposure to the foam caused health issues such as cancer, organ damage, and birth and fertility issues.
Here, at TruLaw, we’re committed to helping victims get the justice they deserve.
Alongside our partner law firms, we have successfully collected over $3 Billion in verdicts and settlements on behalf of injured individuals.
Would you like our help?
The FDA is calling to attention a corrective recall of HeartMate II and HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) by Abbott/Thoratec Corp. because long-term buildup in product components may cause an obstruction. Because this blockage could result in serious injuries or death, an FDA
Consumers are advised that Feel Good Foods, of New York, New York, has recalled its Gluten-Free Cream Cheese Stuffed Mini Bagels in the Plain and Everything flavors due to the potential presence of undeclared gluten from cross-contamination. Individuals who live with an allergy or sensitivity
Consumers are advised that multiple undeclared allergens have been identified in the 4-ounce packages of ice cream sandwiches as well as the 5-liter containers and 4.75-liter pans of gelato produced by Belgian Yummies, of Fort Myers, Florida. According to the FDA, the affected products can