Bayer Loses Bid to Wipe Out First Roundup Cancer Verdict

Bayer AG failed to persuade a California state judge to set aside a jury’s verdict in the first trial over allegations that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer, but the judge said damages should be reduced to $78.6 million from $289 million.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos rejected Bayer’s arguments that the jury didn’t have any basis to conclude that the herbicide caused an ex-school groundskeeper’s cancer.

The decision isn’t a legal precedent for thousands of related lawsuits across the U.S., but it will encourage plaintiffs to press forward with their claims.

Jurors awarded $39 million to ...