. @RobertKennedyJr says the verdict was of Mr. Johnson’s character pic.twitter.com/WHM1EKPpQ2 — Melanie Woodrow (@MelanieWoodrow) August 11, 2018 Jury found #Monsanto acted with malice, oppression and fraud pic.twitter.com/APW6Hr0eD0 — Melanie Woodrow (@MelanieWoodrow) August 10, 2018 Dewayne Johnson thanking jurors, his legal team and family after landmark #Monsanto verdict pic.twitter.com/T1BMofVr5f — Melanie Woodrow (@MelanieWoodrow) August 11, 2018 SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It was a landmark verdict in the case against Monsanto on Friday. A jury awarded a former Benicia School District groundskeeper with terminal cancer $289.2 million dollars.Dewayne Lee Johnson's attorneys says that $289 million verdict means he will be able to afford some cutting edge treatments.This is a day they did not expect him to survive to see.The jury deliberated for two and a half days after eight weeks of trial proceedings.You could see Mr. Johnson overcome with emotion as the verdict was read, the jury finding that weed killers manufactured by Monsanto, Roundup and Ranger Pro, were substantial factors in causing harm to him.Johnson worked for the Benicia School District in 2012 as the integrative pest manager. A large part of his job was to spray these products in bulk 30 times a year.Two and a half years into the job, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.This is the first of thousands of cases like it against Monsanto. "I think it's exactly like the tobacco trials. Monsanto, for 40 years, has been taking the playbook from the tobacco industry, ghostwriting science, buying science, using all the different PR strategies and the legal strategies to confuse the science to blur the science and I'm so glad that this jury held them accountable," said Johnson's attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Monsanto VP Scott Partridge said, "No, it's not a fair analysis at all. We all know tobacco causes cancer, glyphosate does not cause cancer. It's been perfectly safe and that's been demonstrated for more than four decades. I don't know how they got it wrong but they did, they got it wrong. "Johnson is a father and husband. Again, his attorneys have said throughout this trial, that he's on borrowed time as his cancer is terminal.Monsanto's VP says they will appeal this case. He also said they have no plans to settle future cases in light of Friday's verdict.Monsanto's VP Scott Partidge released a statement regarding Friday's verdict:<doc-sep>"This is one of those difficult questions at the margins of science and the judge found the evidence simply wasn't inadmissible," said Lars Noah, a law professor at the University of Florida. Johnson, 46, said in his lawsuit filed in 2016 that frequent use of Roundup caused him to develop lymphatic cancer. Expert testimony is highly influential in product liability cases, and evidentiary standards exist to prevent juries from making decisions based on theories unsupported by science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 2017 concluded a decades-long assessment of glyphosate risks and found the chemical not likely carcinogenic to humans. However, the cancer unit of the World Health Organization in 2015 classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans." Monsanto said the plaintiff's experts should have been excluded because although they mainly cited respected, peer-reviewed studies, they inappropriately cherry-picked results and used unreliable methods to support the position that glysophate causes cancer in humans. But Alexandra Lahav, a law professor at the University of Connecticut, said it was common for experts to rely on the same studies and reach different conclusions to present to a jury during trial.<doc-sep>A jury has ordered Monsanto Co. to pay $289.2 million in a landmark lawsuit over whether exposure to two of its powerful weed killers caused cancer. The jury verdict, in San Francisco Superior Court, is the latest setback for Monsanto, now part of Bayer AG BAYRY, -3.10% , as its flagship weed killer Roundup comes under increased scrutiny following the 2015 determination from the World Health Organization that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicides, is probably carcinogenic.<doc-sep>FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer BAYGn.DE shares plunged as much as 14 percent on Monday, losing about $14 billion in value, after newly acquired Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages in the first of possibly thousands of U.S. lawsuits over alleged links between a weedkiller and cancer. After the verdict in favor of a California school groundskeeper with terminal cancer, Monsanto faces more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States over claims it did not warn of the cancer risks of glyphosate-based weedkillers, including its Roundup brand. Monsanto, bought by Bayer this year for $63 billion, said that it would appeal against the jury’s verdict in California, which is the latest episode in a long-running debate over claims that exposure to Roundup can cause cancer. The case by plaintiff Dewayne Johnson, filed in 2016, was fast-tracked for trial due to the severity of his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system that he alleges was caused by Roundup and Ranger Pro, another Monsanto glyphosate herbicide. “The jury’s verdict is at odds with the weight of scientific evidence, decades of real world experience and the conclusions of regulators around the world that all confirm glyphosate is safe and does not cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Bayer said in a statement. Having closed the Monsanto takeover, Bayer is only awaiting the approval of some final antitrust-related asset sales before folding it into its own organization. It did not negotiate any payments from Monsanto shareholders for Roundup-related litigation. Bayer shares were down 11.2 percent at 82.93 euros at 1320 GMT, the worst performing stock on the Stoxx Europe 600 index .STOXX, and on track to close at their lowest in almost five years. Barclays analysts said Bayer was in for a “litigious headache”. “Whilst an appeal is certain and may indeed likely result in the penalty being moderated at a minimum if not reversed altogether, a large number of similar pending cases will now likely multiply.” Berenberg analyst Alistair Campbell said resolving the issue could cost Bayer $5 billion, citing a rough estimate based on a past product liability settlements such as Merck & Co Inc's MRK.N $4.9 billion settlement over painkiller Vioxx or Bayer's $4.2 billion total settlement over the Baycol cholesterol drug. The controversy could also affect future revenues. Genetically modified (GM) crops that withstand glyphosate are a main source of cash for Monsanto, mainly generated in North and South America, where the technology is widely accepted. The health worries could further darken the outlook for a product category following the emergence of weeds that have grown resistant to the herbicide. Slideshow ( 3 images ) “We think the risk of withdrawal is extremely low, but if it materialized it would be a major blow to the transaction value paid for the company,” said Berenberg’s Campbell. SCIENTIFIC DEBATE Discovered by the Monsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970, patent-free glyphosate herbicides are now sold by the global crop protection industry despite the dispute over its safety. Slideshow ( 3 images ) The U.S. court ruling caught many Bayer investors off guard as no hard evidence of a causal link to cancer had been produced so far. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer arm in 2015 classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 2017 concluded a decades-long assessment of glyphosate risks and found the chemical was not likely carcinogenic to humans. A Reuters report in October showed that the WHO’s cancer agency dismissed and edited findings from a draft of its review of glyphosate that were at odds with its final conclusion that the chemical probably causes cancer. In Europe, the EU Commission in December drew criticism for renewing the license for glyphosate. Germany and France have meanwhile taken steps to phase out use of the weedkiller. The U.S. case may prompt some retailers to curb sales of Roundup products. Homebase, one of Britain’s largest home and garden improvement retailers, is reviewing the sale of glyphosate-containing products in the light of the jury’s decision, a spokeswoman said. Glyphosate-exposed stocks also plunged in Asia and particularly in Australia where a withering drought has already hit herbicide sales. Australian chemical maker Nufarm Ltd NUF.AX, which Macquarie Bank analysts estimate earns about a fifth of its revenue from glyphosate-based products, plunged almost 17 percent to a more than two-year low. Its top shareholder, Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd 4005.T, shed 3 percent, while Australian rural services firm Elders Ltd ELD.AX, which retails herbicides, fell 11 percent.<doc-sep>
Bayer shares plunged Monday after subsidiary Monsanto suffered a huge blow last week following a jury awarding a California groundskeeper $289.2 million in a landmark lawsuit claiming the company’s weed killer Roundup causes cancer. A California jury concluded the Monsanto’s Roundup and Ranger Pro products presented a “substantial danger” to terminally ill 46-year-old Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, who became sick with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using the spray for more than two years as a groundskeeper for a school district outside San Francisco. Jurors believed the company knew or should have known about the potential risks the products posed. Johnson’s case is the first of a long list of about 4,000 people looking to sue the weed and seed maker for similar allegations. Aaron Johnson, a 48-year-old former macadamia nut field manager, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2014, is looking to sue the agrochemical company next, after he says he got the disease from using its weed killers for more than 12 years. Johnson tells FOX Business that after he heard the verdict on Friday, he couldn’t stop crying. “I was so relieved that the truth came out in this trial and the jury recognized that and responded with an appropriate verdict,” he says. Immediately following the verdict, Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge released a statement saying despite the jury’s decision, it “does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews – and conclusions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and regulatory authorities around the world – support the fact that glyphosate does not cause cancer, and did not cause Mr. Johnson’s cancer.” Monsanto says it plans to appeal the court's decision. Carey Gillam, an investigative journalist and author of a new book, “Whitewash,” that details Monsanto's history with this chemical and the revelations found in the company's internal records, tells FOX Business that Johnson’s case shined a public spotlight on Monsanto’s attempt to cover up studies linking the chemical with the disease for decades. With this verdict and more than 4,000 other plaintiffs waiting in the wings, Monsanto could be in court for decades to come and it could cost them and its new owner, Bayer, hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars in damages. “The case is historic. It is the first time secrets from within Monsanto have been laid bare in a public court of law for all to scrutinize,” Gillam says. “Monsanto is facing a flood of thousands of additional lawsuits with several trials already scheduled over the next several months.” Christine Sheppard, a 68-year-old retired coffee bean farmer, who is also represented by Johnson’s Timothy Litzenburg and plans to take her case against Monsanto to trial soon, tells FOX Business that she was “shocked, surprised, and thrilled” when she heard the verdict on Friday. “I really thought it would take a number of cases to be heard before we would get any positive results, much like the tobacco industry cases. But the jury could obviously see the deliberate deception by the Monsanto researchers and judged accordingly. I am thrilled for Lee Johnson, he deserves a quick settlement so that he can have some peace of mind for himself and his family who face a future without him,” she says. Sheppard, who is in remission now, believes she developed cancer after using Roundup for several years and wanted the products banned and taken off store shelves. “I still see it at my local stores. Roundup has destroyed my life and has caused my family so much pain. [Monsanto] did exactly what the tobacco industry did. They hid reports linking its weed killer to cancer,” she says. “I look forward to my case being heard, but still have no date for it.”