The History of a Glyphosate Herbicide Cancer Lawsuit in California
In this post I’m going to cover some of the history of a California lawsuit revolving around Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing Roundup herbicide, cancer, and a man named DeWayne Johnson.
May, 2018 – Dying Man’s Lawsuit Alleges Glyphosate Herbicide Caused His Cancer
DeWayne Johnson, a former groundskeeper for a California school district, is slated to take biotech giant Monsanto to trial over allegations that the company suppressed evidence that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the company’s blockbuster herbicide RoundUp, has carcinogenic properties. [1]
Johnson, 46, was a groundskeeper for the Benicia Unified School District in Solano County, California from 2012 to 2015. Part of his job involved spraying RoundUp on school properties. Johnson was healthy when he started the job, but he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in August 2014.
The district instructed him to use Ranger Pro instead of Roundup on school grounds because Roundup wasn’t strong enough to remove all the weeds from the hillsides owned by the district. As long as he wore long-sleeved shirts, pants, shoes, and socks, he would be safe, a supervisor told Johnson.
Johnson took additional measures to protect himself, donning a sturdy jacket, rubber gloves, goggles, and a face mask while he mixed Ranger Pro in with water in 50-gallon drums and sprayed it 20 to 30 times a year for 2-3 hours a day, mostly during the summer.
But it was impossible to keep the glyphosate concoction from blowing into his face, and on 2 occasions, he got drenched in the herbicide. The first time occurred when a spray hose became detached from a truck that was hauling it; the second time the chemical somehow leaked onto Johnson’s back. Because he was at work, he couldn’t take a shower to wash off the chemical until later in the day.
About 80% of Johnson’s body was covered in lesions by January 2018, a deposition of his physician shows. He is currently bedridden and unable to speak, despite starting a new treatment in January. Doctors have given him mere months to live.
In the lawsuit, Johnson alleges his cancer was caused by RoundUp, and that Monsanto knew the glyphosate-containing product posed serious health risks but chose to hide those risks through a campaign of misinformation and attacks on studies that warned about the dangers posed by glyphosate.
Read: Meta-Analyses Finds Link Between Glyphosate and Cancer of the Lymph Tissue
Johnson’s attorney, Michael Miller, said:
“Monsanto does not want the truth about RoundUp and cancer to become public. We look forward to exposing how Monsanto hid the risk of cancer and polluted the science.” [2]
Earlier in May, Judge Curtis Karnow ordered that jurors in the trial may consider scientific evidence concerning Johnson’s cancer as well as allegations that Monsanto knowingly suppressed findings indicating that glyphosate is carcinogenic in nature. Jurors may also consider punitive damages in the case, which is set to begin June 18.
Monsanto had attempted to bar Johnson’s experts from testifying and his legal team from using certain studies to link his cancer to glyphosate exposure.
Read: RoundUp Chemicals Linked to Cancer of the Lymph System
Karnow wrote in the order:
“The internal correspondence noted by Johnson could support a jury finding that Monsanto has long been aware of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic … but has continuously sought to influence the scientific literature to prevent its internal concerns from reaching the public sphere and to bolster its defenses in products liability actions. Thus there are triable issues of material fact.” [1]
Also earlier in May, a study authored by U.S. and European researchers was released, bolstering “persistent concerns about the pesticide’s impact on sexual development, genotoxicity, and intestinal bacteria, even when exposure is limited to a level currently considered ‘safe’ by U.S. regulators.”
Johnson’s case is the first of about 4,000 nationwide against Monsanto (now acquired by Bayer) awaiting trial.
In 2015, IARC Deems Glyphosate “Probably Carcinogenic”
Before moving on, I’d like to mention that there has been much debate over the safety of glyphosate since the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) deemed “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015.
Monsanto disputed the IARC’s classification and points out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has never classified glyphosate as a carcinogen or restricted its use. However, even this claim is not without controversy, as it came to light in early 2017 that an EPA official allegedly worked with the agritech giant to kill a study showing that glyphosate causes cancer.
July, 2018 – Judge Green Lights Lawsuits Alleging Roundup-Cancer Link
In early July, the judge overseeing Johnson’s case, U.S. District Judge Vincent Chhabria, stated that plaintiffs had presented enough evidence “from which a reasonable jury could conclude that glyphosate can cause NHL at human-relevant doses,” and said that he would allow cases involving more than 360 plaintiffs before him go to trial.
August, 2018 – Jury Orders Monsanto to Pay $289 Million in World’s 1st Roundup Trial
A jury awards $250 million in punitive damages and nearly $40 million in compensatory damages to the former school groundskeeper.
After 3 days of deliberation, the San Francisco Superior Court of California jury concluded that Monsanto failed to warn Johnson and the general public about the cancer risks associated with Roundup.
In a statement, Monsanto said it would appeal the verdict. [3]
“Today’s decision does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews … support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause Mr. Johnson’s cancer.”
October 10, 2018 – Judge Could Overturn $289 Million Verdict in Monsanto Roundup Case
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos made a tentative ruling on October 10 that could overturn the $250 million in punitive damages and prompt a new trial.
In the ruling, Bolanos said Johnson “presented no clear and convincing evidence of malice or oppression to support an award of punitive damages,” tentatively granting Monsanto’s request for a judgment notwithstanding verdict (JNV). This indicates that the judge plans on overturning the jury’s decision.
Jurors in the case urged Bolanos to let the award stand.
October 22, 2018 – Judge Upholds Monsanto Roundup-Cancer Verdict but Cuts Award to $78.5 Million
The California judge on October 22 upheld the jury’s verdict finding that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused a former school groundskeeper’s cancer, but slashed the amount of money to be paid from $289 million to just over $78 million – $39 in punitive damages and $39 million in compensatory damages
Bolanos’ reason for this, she said, was that she felt the punitive award was too high and needed to closely mirror Johnson’s $39 million compensatory award.
She wrote in her ruling:
“In enforcing due process limits, the court does not sit as a replacement for the jury but only as a check on arbitrary awards.
The punitive damages award must be constitutionally reduced to the maximum allowed by due process in this case – $39,253,209.35 – equal to the amount of compensatory damages awarded by the jury based on its findings of harm to the plaintiff.”
Trial Concludes – Offer Accepted
Johnson accepted a reduced award of $78 million, instead of the $289 million award a jury originally decided on.
Bayer Crop Science spokesperson Charla Lord said in a statement:
“The Court’s decision to reduce the punitive damage award by more than $200 million is a step in the right direction, but we continue to believe that the liability verdict and damage awards are not supported by the evidence at trial or the law and plan to file an appeal with the California Court of Appeal.
There is an extensive body of research on glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides, including more than 800 rigorous registration studies required by EPA, European and other regulators, that confirms that these products are safe when used as directed.”
As of late 2018, Bayer was facing about 8,000 more glyphosate-cancer lawsuits.
