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Bayer Loses in $2.065B Roundup Verdict

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A Cobb County, Georgia, jury awarded plaintiff John Barnes $2.065 billion in compensation and damages on March 21 in what was the latest Roundup product-liability verdict against Bayer's glyphosate-based weed killer.

Bayer told DTN it plans to file an appeal based on a number of grounds. Despite the latest setback, the company has won 17 of the last 25 cases where judgements were entered at trial.

Barnes, who reportedly is battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, filed his lawsuit against Monsanto in 2021. Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018.

"Our client, John, used Roundup at both home and work, which exposed him to higher levels of glyphosate than most people," law firm Arnold and Itkin, said in a statement.

"Of course, John felt he had nothing to fear because Monsanto had publicly said Roundup was safe even though its internal scientists knew that it was not."

A spokesperson for Bayer told DTN the company has reason to be optimistic in filing an appeal.

Final judgements in Roundup litigation have reduced damages awarded by juries by more than 90%, according to the company. In addition, Bayer said the damages in the Barnes case are "constitutionally excessive" and "cannot stand."

The judge in the Barnes case dismissed the majority of claims before it went to the jury, Bayer said, because they "were not supported" by the evidence or law.

"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," Bayer said in a statement to DTN.

"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 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."

Bayer said it is set to argue in an appeal that the trial court made several errors.

That includes that the court reportedly did not allow evidence that the plaintiff purchased other herbicides in addition to Roundup and that the plaintiff's ex-wife was not allowed to testify to other pesticides being present in the family's garage, among other alleged errors.

STATE LEGISLATION

The Georgia verdict comes just after the Georgia House of Representatives passed SB144.

The bill, also passed by the state senate, protects manufacturers of fertilizers, plant growth regulators or pesticides from legal liability for not warning consumers of health risks above what is already required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

As of Monday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp had not signed the bill into law.

Similar legislation is in the works in Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The latest verdict is similar to one handed down by a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury in January 2024. That jury awarded $2.25 billion in damages to Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, resident John McKivison: https://www.dtnpf.com/…. The damages award was later reduced by a court to $400 million.

Bayer told DTN it continues to pursue "legislative solutions" at the state and federal levels to clarify the label uniformity provision of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA.

"Without reform, the U.S. risks the availability of a crop-protection tool that has consistently been found to be safe by regulatory bodies worldwide," Bayer said.

"By allowing this misapplication of the law to persist, our nation is needlessly driving up the cost of food and threatening its supply."

GLYPHOSATE RECORD

In late 2023, the EU Commission re-approved glyphosate for 10 years following the favorable scientific assessments by its health and safety agencies.â€¯

On Nov. 7, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found California's Proposition 65 warning for glyphosate to be unconstitutional, stating in their opinion "IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) stands essentially alone in its determination that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans."

In July 2024, a judge in the Federal Court of Australia found in a detailed 322-page opinion that the weight of scientific evidence does not support a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and dismissed the case.â€¯The same court later discontinued the last pending Roundup case in Australia, closing all pending injury litigation there.