Monsanto to pay $289 million in Roundup case

CNN – San Francisco jurors ruled that Monsanto’s Roundup product gave Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper, terminal cancer, according to CNN. As a result of the ruling, Monsanto awarded the groundskeeper $289 million in damages.

According to CNN, Johnson’s victory could set precedent for many other cases claiming Monsanto’s herbicide causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Last year, CNN reported that more than 800 patients were suing Monsanto, claiming Roundup gave them cancer.

Johnson’s case was first to go to trial because doctors said he was near death. After three days of deliberations this week, the jury at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco awarded Johnson $250 million in punitive damages and about $39 million in compensatory damages.

After the verdict, Monsanto issued a statement saying it stands by the studies that suggest Roundup does not cause cancer. “We will appeal this decision and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective and safe tool for farmers and others,” Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge told CNN.

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