On Friday a California jury found Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, responsible for a school groundskeeper’s cancer and ordered it to pay $289 million in damages, according to the New York Times.
The jury sided with 46-year-old Dewayne Johnson who contended he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the weedkillers Roundup and Ranger Pro while he worked as a pest control manager for a California county school system. Both products contain glyphosate herbicide, a substance Johnson’s lawyers contend caused his cancer.
Failure to Warn
The jury concluded Monsanto failed to warn Mr. Johnson and other consumers of the cancer risk posed by its weedkillers and awarded him $39 million in compensatory and $250 million in punitive damages.
According to news reports, the lawsuit was filed in 2016 and was put on the fast track for trial because of the severity of Mr. Johnson’s cancer. His doctors said he was unlikely to live past 2020.
Monsanto, a unit of the German conglomerate Bayer, is facing more than 5,000 similar lawsuits in the U.S. We are pursuing Roundup cases on behalf of a number of victims with similar diagnoses of lymphoma.
At Terrell • Hogan, we represent the injured as they seek justice. Whether it’s dangerous and defective products, drugs or medical devices, the lawsuits we have pursued have prompted safety changes. However, that came after the incidents, accidents and injuries happened. We believe it is important to try to help prevent injuries and wrongful deaths.
