On October 26, 2018, the dying plaintiff in the first-of-its-kind case involving Monsanto Co.’s glyphosate product, ROUNDUP®, has accepted a judge’s punitive damages award reduction prior to the court-imposed deadline of December 7, 2018. The amount of $78 million represents the $39 million for compensatory damages, and the equivalent $39 million for punitives, which the judge, Suzanne Bolanos, reduced as a result of a post-trial motion brought forth by Monsanto. The plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, accepted to reduced award, perhaps in part because he has only a limited amount of time left to live, based on the prognosis of the non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which he alleged at trial was caused by the glyphosates, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. More information on the trial has been discussed earlier on this blog; a subsequent posting further discussed the post-trial motions brought by Monsanto to overturn the jury verdict of $289 million.
This case is only the first in approximately 8,700 cases which have been filed by plaintiffs against Monsanto alleging various ailments caused by glyphosates. Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer AG this past summer, already announced that it would appeal the trial verdict decision to the California Court of Appeal, First District.
We will continue to update the blog with any further developments.