Bayer Hit With $175 Million Award in Roundup Cancer Trial (1)

Bayer AG unit Monsanto was told by a Pennsylvania jury to pay $175 million to a man who blamed his cancer on use of the company’s weedkiller — the first sizable Roundup verdict in four years.

Jurors in state court in Philadelphia on Friday awarded 83-year-old Ernie Caranci $25 million in actual damages and $150 million in punitive damages over his claims that 20 years of using Roundup on his garden caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Bayer had won nine Roundup cases in a row until a week ago, when a jury in state court in St. Louis awarded $1.25 million in damages to another man who also blamed the weedkiller for his cancer.

Bayer said it disagrees with the jury’s liability finding and is confident “we can get this unfounded verdict overturned and the excessive damage awards reduced through our appeal,” according to an emailed statement.

Bayer’s new CEO, Bill Anderson, has been reviewing the German company’s strategy and structure since taking over the helm in June. The Texas native has said nothing is off the table as he seeks to win back the faith of investors and navigate the company out of a thicket of challenges.

Anderson’s room for maneuverability could be constrained if the company’s US legal problems — which also include litigation around other legacy Monsanto products, such as toxic PCBs — flare up again with more high-profile trial losses. Anderson needs to show investors that the company’s diversified strategy — yoking crops and pharmaceuticals — makes sense, or else come up with a more appealing approach.

Read More: Bayer’s Multibillion-Dollar Roundup Suit Risk Could Rocket in 4Q

Two years ago, Bayer set aside as much as $16 billion to resolve tens of thousands of cases over Roundup, which it acquired when it bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion.

The conglomerate now faces a second wave of cases alleging that glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup — along with other elements of the herbicide are carcinogens. It lost a bid in 2022 to have the US Supreme Court hear arguments that all Roundup suits should be barred from going forward on procedural grounds.

“We believe that the jury’s finding that Monsanto’s conduct was outrageous is a harbinger of things to come in the Roundup litigation nationally,” Jason Itkin, a California-based plaintiffs’ lawyer who represented Caranci along with veteran Philadelphia litigator Thomas Kline, said in an emailed statement.

The company has steadfastly denied Roundup causes cancer and has won defense verdicts in cases tried around the country over the years.

While Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer already has settled thousands of Roundup cases, estimates are there may be as many as 40,000 suits outstanding alleging the weedkiller is riddled with carcinogens, including glyphosate, arsenic and formaldehyde. Itkin said Bayer faces a spate of trials over the product in Philadelphia, including three trials between now and January.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court — where Caranci’s case was tried — is considered a plaintiff-friendly venue and juries have handed down billion-dollar-plus verdicts against corporate defendants in the past. Caranci’s trial was the first Roundup case heard by jurors in that court. The panel deliberated less than six hours before returning its verdict.

During the trial, Kline told jurors that Caranci, a retired pizza-shop owner, is estimated to have spent more than 400 hours exposed to the weedkiller and didn’t wear any protective clothing.

“Monsanto knew exactly what it was doing when it chose not to warn people Roundup causes cancer,” Itkin said in an interview. “If they told people the truth, that this could cause cancer, it would hurt the sales.”

The case is Caranci v. Monsanto, 210602213, Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia).

(Updates with plaintiffs lawyer’s comment in fourth paragraph)

--With assistance from Tim Loh.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at jfeeley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Steve Stroth

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