Bayer must pay US$78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he got cancer from using the company’s Roundup weedkiller, a state court jury in Philadelphia found on Thursday.
The verdict follows previous consecutive victories for Bayer in that court. The company had won 14 of the previous 20 trials over Roundup, though it has been hit with several massive verdicts in the litigation, including last November for US$1.56 billion, later reduced to US$611 million, and one in January for US$2.25 billion, later reduced to US$400 million.
The jury awarded US$3 million in compensatory damages and US$75 million in punitive damages.
Bayer in a statement said it believed it had a strong argument for reducing the damages on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages should generally be less than 10 times compensatory damages.
“We disagree with the jury’s verdict, as it conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide,” the company said.
Lawyers for plaintiff William Melissen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Melissen and his wife, Margaret Melissen, sued Bayer in 2021. They alleged that William, like other Roundup plaintiffs, developed a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma from exposure to glyphosate, which was the active ingredient in Roundup sold for home use until last year.
Melissen said he used the product at home and at work from 1992 until 2020, when he was diagnosed. He alleges that both glyphosate and another chemical in Roundup caused his cancer.
Bayer maintains that glyphosate does not cause cancer and that the lawsuits are meritless. The company settled most of the then-pending Roundup litigation in 2020 for US$10.9 billion, but currently faces about 58,000 claims, according to its most recent financial report.
The company won a significant legal victory in August, when the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that federal law shields Bayer from state law claims, which conflicts with previous rulings by other federal appeals courts.
Bayer has said it will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court resolve that conflict, and that a victory there could effectively end the Roundup litigation.
Bayer had asked the Philadelphia state court to follow the 3rd Circuit and throw out the case. The 3rd Circuit’s jurisdiction includes federal courts in Pennsylvania, but state courts are not legally bound to follow it. That bid was denied, allowing the Melissens’ case to go to trial, but the company is appealing.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)