A jury awarded Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old man with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, $289 million after the former school groundskeeper claimed that the product Roundup caused his cancer. The outcome of this case may set a precedent for many others who have pending cases against Monsanto, maker of the weed killer.
Mr. Johnson alleges that heavy contact with the herbicide caused his cancer, and the state Superior Court jury agreed, finding that Monsanto should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard on the product.
In a groundbreaking case, a jury awards $289 million in damages to a man who said he got terminal cancer from Monsanto's popular weedkiller Roundup https://t.co/ub7wY2NMYZ pic.twitter.com/ePMcxpHMGi
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) August 10, 2018
This was the first case filed by a patient with cancer against Monsanto to reach trial and was expedited because court filings indicated that Mr. Johnson was dying. “A unanimous jury in San Francisco has told Monsanto, ‘Enough. You did something wrong and now you have to pay,’” said Mr. Johnson’s lawyer, Brent Wisner. “There’s 4,000 other cases filed around the United States and there are countless thousand other people out there who are suffering from cancer because Monsanto didn’t give them a choice. … We now have a way forward.”
Monsanto has denied a link between the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, and cancer, saying hundreds of studies have established that it is safe. The company plans to appeal.
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Source: Associated Press
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