A Missouri jury has ruled that Bayer must pay $1.56 billion to four plaintiffs who claimed that the company’s Roundup weed killer caused them serious physical injuries, most importantly, cancer. Bayer has long claimed Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is safe for human use. So far, the evidence doesn’t support this defense, and the verdicts against Bayer are starting to accumulate. This marks the fourth consecutive legal setback for Bayer, which is battling about165,000 personal injury claims linked to Roundup following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, and this verdict may intensify investor pressure on the German pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals company to reassess its legal strategy.
The jury determined that Bayer’s Monsanto division was culpable for negligence, design defects, and insufficiently warning plaintiffs about the potential risks associated with Roundup. The awarded damages encompassed $61.1 million in compensatory damages and $500 million each in punitive damages for Valorie Gunther, Jimmy Draeger, and Daniel Anderson, who linked their non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnoses to Roundup use, and $100,000 for Brenda Draeger. It’s possible that the punitive damages portion of the award may undergo reduction on appeal, but this marks the fourth consecutive legal setback for Bayer, which is battling about165,000 personal injury claims linked to Roundup following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto
As a Boston defective products lawyer, what I find really offensive about Bayer’s claims, is that this company is known in the public eye for its healthcare products. Who doesn’t think of Bayer when they think of aspirin? Yet the truth is that Bayer manufactures an entire range of products, especially farming and agriculture – and several of them can be very dangerous. In my view, Roundup cases are just another in a seemingly endless parade of corporate irresponsibility and greed. This kind of corporate conduct is nothing new, but try telling that to someone who’s been diagnosed with cancer. It’s limited comfort. But manufacturers of dangerous products have to be held legally accountable for their actions. That’s one of the reasons I became a catastrophic injury lawyer. It isn’t easy; these cases are hard-fought, and any law firm taking these kind of deep-pocketed defendants, needs to have many years of proven, successful experience in the sub-specialty of product liability law. We have more than 30 years’ experience suing companies that manufacture and market defective products. If you have questions about Roundup cases or you feel you’ve been harmed because of a defective or unsafe product, contact us. We’d be glad to provide you a free consultation.