((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Added statistic on Bayer’s recent wins and losses (paragraph 11)) by Dietrich Knauth
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday reduced the US$2.25 billion verdict against Bayer BAYGn.DE to $400 million for a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer following exposure to the weedkiller Roundup. the company.
A Philadelphia court jury found that John McKivison’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma resulted from using Roundup for yard work at his home over several years, and ordered Bayer to pay $250 million in compensatory damages and 2 billion dollars in punitive damages.
Judge Susan Schulman granted some of Bayer’s post-trial motions challenging that verdict, reducing compensatory damages to $50 million and punitive damages to $350 million.
Bayer said she would continue to appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, challenging the trial court’s decision to allow the jury to hear what she called misleading and “inflammatory” testimony.
“Although the Court’s decision reduces the unconstitutionally excessive damages award, we still disagree with the finding of liability because the trial was tainted with significant and reversible errors,” a statement said. a Bayer spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Bayer has also called for legislative reform in the United States to protect companies whose products comply with federal labeling requirements.
McKivison’s lawyers, Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, said they were pleased that Mr. Schulman upheld the jury’s finding that Roundup causes cancer. But they also plan to appeal, seeking reinstatement of the jury’s $2.25 billion verdict.
“The reduction in the jury verdict amount is a clear departure from established Pennsylvania law and we intend to appeal,” Kline and Itkin said in a joint statement.
Bayer said decades of studies have shown that Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, are safe for humans. Roundup is one of the most widely used weedkillers in the United States, although the company gradually stopped selling it for home use last year.
Bayer has won 14 of the last 20 Roundup lawsuits, but it also racked up a string of losses in late 2023 and early 2024, resulting in verdicts worth more than 4 billion dollars.
Some of those verdicts, like McKivison’s, were later reduced, but the cases ended a string of nine winning trials for Bayer and dashed the hopes of investors and the company who thought the worst of the dispute over Roundup was over.
About 165,000 lawsuits have been filed in the United States against the company for injuries allegedly caused by Roundup, which Bayer acquired as part of its takeover of U.S. agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion. Most plaintiffs, like McKivison, allege the product caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
In 2020, Bayer settled most of the ongoing Roundup cases for up to $9.6 billion, but failed to obtain a settlement covering future cases. More than 50,000 complaints remain outstanding.
