SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco jury on Friday ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto to pay $289 million to a former school groundskeeper dying of cancer, saying the company’s popular Roundup weed killer contributed to his disease.
Dewayne Johnson’s lawsuit was the first of thousands of cases filed in state and federal courts alleging that Roundup causes cancer, which Monsanto denies.
Johnson said he hoped his verdict would bolster the other cases.
“This case is way bigger than me,” Johnson said during a press conference in his lawyers’ San Francisco office after the verdict. “I hope it gets the attention that it needs.”
Johnson declined to answer reporters’ questions.
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Jurors in California superior court agreed the product contributed to Johnson’s cancer and the company should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard.
Johnson’s attorneys sought and won $39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million of the $373 million they wanted in punitive damages.
“This jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a member of Johnson’s legal team. “This should send a strong message to the boardroom of Monsanto.”
Monsanto has denied a link between the active ingredient in Roundup — glyphosate — and cancer, saying hundreds of studies have established that the weed killer is safe.
AFPAgence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835, AFP is the third largest news agency in the world, after the Associated Press and Reuters.
