John Barnes was awarded $2 billion in damages in a lawsuit against Bayer’s weedkiller product Roundup. Barnes argued the product caused cancer development.
Bayer is the parent of Monsanto.
“From 1999 to 2019, he regularly purchased the glyphosate-based herbicide at Home Depot stores, unknowingly exposing himself to a dangerous carcinogen that Monsanto falsely marketed as safe,” Barnes’ lawyers wrote in a statement on the verdict. Barnes was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) in 2020.
The $2 billion award is the “largest single-plaintiff injury verdict” in Georgia’s history and “a landmark victory in the ongoing fight against Monsanto,” the lawyers said.
Bayer said it disagrees with the verdict, as it “conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide.”
“We believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned and the excessive and unconstitutional damage awards eliminated or reduced,” the company asserted. “The court previously granted the majority of the company’s motion for a directed verdict finding that the plaintiff had failed to prove most of their causes of action in this case.”
“The Company remains committed to trying cases, having secured favorable outcomes in 17 of the last 25 trials. Our track record demonstrates that we win when plaintiffs’ attorneys and their experts are not allowed to misrepresent the worldwide regulatory and scientific assessments that continue to support the products’ safety. Damages in cases that have reached final judgments have been reduced 90% overall compared with the original jury awards,” Bayer added.
