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Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer

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Floridatexan

Floridatexan


Court finds in favor of Dewayne Johnson, first person to take Roundup maker to trial

"Monsanto suffered a major blow with a jury ruling that the company was liable for a terminally ill man’s cancer, awarding him $289m in damages.

Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old former groundskeeper, won a huge victory in the landmark case on Friday, with the jury determining that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposure. The jury further found that Monsanto “acted with malice or oppression”.

Johnson’s lawyers argued over the course of a month-long trial in San Francisco that Monsanto had “fought science” for years and targeted academics who spoke up about possible health risks of the herbicide product. Johnson was the first person to take the agrochemical corporation to trial over allegations that the chemical sold under the brand Roundup causes cancer.

In the extraordinary verdict, which Monsanto said it intends to appeal, the jury ruled that the company was responsible for “negligent failure” and knew or should have known that its product was “dangerous”.

“We were finally able to show the jury the secret, internal Monsanto documents proving that Monsanto has known for decades that ... Roundup could cause cancer,” Johnson’s lawyer Brent Wisner said in a statement. The verdict, he added, sent a “message to Monsanto that its years of deception regarding Roundup is over and that they should put consumer safety first over profits”.

Speaking in San Francisco on Friday, Johnson said that the jury’s verdict is far bigger than his lawsuit. He said he hopes the case bolsters the thousands of similar lawsuits pending against the company and brings national attention to the issue.

Johnson’s case was particularly significant because a judge allowed his team to present scientific arguments. The dispute centered on glyphosate, which is the world’s most widely used herbicide. The verdict came a month after a federal judge ruled that cancer survivors or relatives of the deceased could bring similar claims forward in another trial.

During the lengthy trial, the plaintiff’s attorneys brought forward internal emails from Monsanto executives that they said demonstrated how the corporation repeatedly ignored experts’ warnings, sought favorable scientific analyses and helped to “ghostwrite” research that encouraged continued usage.

Monsanto has long argued that Roundup is safe and not linked to cancer and presented studies during trial that countered the research and testimony submitted by Johnson’s team. The herbicide is registered in 130 countries and approved for use on more than 100 crops, but in 2015, the World Health Organization’s international agency for research on cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, triggering a wave of legal and legislative challenges..."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/10/monsanto-trial-cancer-dewayne-johnson-ruling

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Deus X

Deus X

$289 Million? So what? Monsanto made $14 BILLION in revenue last year, $289M is nothing to them. Hell, insurance companies will probably pay most of it.

What's worse is that this case will be in court for years, maybe a decade or more before they pay a dime. Hell, the plaintiff will probably be long dead before they pay up. And no one will go to jail--ever!

To add insult to fatal injury, when I looked up Monsanto, I found this:

Bayer agreed to buy St. Louis-based biotech agricultural company Monsanto in 2017, a deal worth an estimated $60 billion. Together the conglomerate looks to corner the market on farm data and software.

http://fortune.com/fortune500/monsanto/


Until executives go to jail and the Federal Trade Commission starts applying available antitrust laws by breaking up some of these goliath corporations, nothing is going to change.

$289 Million? Big fuckin' deal.

Floridatexan

Floridatexan

Deus X wrote:$289 Million? So what? Monsanto made $14 BILLION in revenue last year, $289M is nothing to them. Hell, insurance companies will probably pay most of it.

What's worse is that this case will be in court for years, maybe a decade or more before they pay a dime. Hell, the plaintiff will probably be long dead before they pay up. And no one will go to jail--ever!

To add insult to fatal injury, when I looked up Monsanto, I found this:

Bayer agreed to buy St. Louis-based biotech agricultural company Monsanto in 2017, a deal worth an estimated $60 billion. Together the conglomerate looks to corner the market on farm data and software.

http://fortune.com/fortune500/monsanto/


Until executives go to jail and the Federal Trade Commission starts applying available antitrust laws by breaking up some of these goliath corporations, nothing is going to change.

$289 Million? Big fuckin' deal.

This is a landmark case. There will be more.

Floridatexan

Floridatexan


Research site:

https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/glyphosate-the-weed-killer-found-in-our-food-water

Deus X

Deus X

Floridatexan wrote:
Research site:

https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/glyphosate-the-weed-killer-found-in-our-food-water

Oh, so what? People have known for decades that glyphosate is dangerous. Even Monsanto knew it. The glyphosate issue is nano-particle sized drop in the astronomically large bucket of Monsanto's sins. They've been suing farmers for years about wind-borne pollen blowing into non-Monsanto fields.

My point is that Monsanto is, essentially, a criminal organization that uses the legal system to inflict damage on innocent farmers. A $289 million fine is puppy-shit to them. Monsanto and their parent, Bayer, should be broken up and some of their executives should do long prison sentence.

A $289 million fine is nothing, it won't change a damn thing.

Floridatexan

Floridatexan

Deus X wrote:
Floridatexan wrote:
Research site:

https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/glyphosate-the-weed-killer-found-in-our-food-water

Oh, so what? People have known for decades that glyphosate is dangerous. Even Monsanto knew it. The glyphosate issue is nano-particle sized drop in the astronomically large bucket of Monsanto's sins. They've been suing farmers for years about wind-borne pollen blowing into non-Monsanto fields.

My point is that Monsanto is, essentially, a criminal organization that uses the legal system to inflict damage on innocent farmers. A $289 million fine is puppy-shit to them. Monsanto and their parent, Bayer, should be broken up and some of their executives should do long prison sentence.

A $289 million fine is nothing, it won't change a damn thing.

It's already caused a 10% drop in Bayer stock.  Here's a "roundup":

The Monsanto Papers: Roundup (Glyphosate) Cancer Case Key Documents & Analysis

Multi District Litigation: More than 450 lawsuits are pending against Monsanto Co. in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, filed by people alleging that exposure to Roundup herbicide caused them or their loved ones to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and that Monsanto covered up the risks. The cases have been combined for handling as multidistrict litigation (MDL) under Judge Vince Chhabria. The lead case is 3:16-md-02741-VC.

Monsanto sought to have its internal records and communications sealed from public view but the judge has allowed many to be made part of the public record, and these “Monsanto Papers” are contained within the records below.

State litigation: Thousands of other plaintiffs have made similar claims against Monsanto in state courts. Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate the total number of plaintiffs at approximately 4,000. The first trial in the Roundup litigation started June 18, 2018 in the Superior Court for the County of San Francisco. Documents pertaining to that case as well as others are also included below in the middle column. Updates:
August 11: Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million as the jury ruled that Roundup weedkiller caused DeWayne Johnson’s cancer. Link to video of the reading of the verdict in San Francisco.
March 5-9, 2018: Daubert hearings held at U.S. District Court in San Francisco – see live blog reporting from “Science Week” by Carey Gillam, links to video of hearings and transcript of oral arguments.
October 11, 2017: Carey Gillam’s remarks to European Parliament joint committee hearing
[...]

https://usrtk.org/pesticides/mdl-monsanto-glyphosate-cancer-case-key-documents-analysis/

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