When a federal jury in California slapped 聽with an $80 million verdict last week after finding the company鈥檚 weed killer Roundup caused a California man鈥檚 cancer, the verdict was meant by to be an informal聽: guidance for both sides on whether to settle hundreds of similar cases pending in his court.
叠耻迟听, a Honolulu attorney representing plaintiffs in similar cases, doesn’t see much hope that Monsanto will settle other cases anytime soon. And with good reason.
Representatives of Monsanto鈥檚 new owner, the German chemical giant , made it clear the company would keep fighting claims that Roundup causes cancer.
鈥淭he verdict in this trial has no impact on future cases and trials, as each one has its own factual and legal circumstances,鈥 the company said in a statement last week. 鈥淏ayer will appeal this verdict.鈥
Among Mackintosh鈥檚 clients are , former South Kona coffee farmers who claim the company is responsible for Christine developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. They regularly applied the chemical to their coffee plants from 1995 until 2004.
Mackintosh鈥檚 complaint is replete with references to findings that a main ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is dangerous to human health. Monsanto and Bayer insist the chemical is safe.
Monsanto is a major agriculture player in Hawaii as a producer of seed corn, some of which is genetically modified to resist being killed by Roundup, as weeds are. The patented 鈥淩oundup ready鈥 corn can be sprayed with the herbicide while it鈥檚 growing to kill weeds in the corn fields.
Although seed corn is Hawaii鈥檚 top cash crop, the industry is because of its heavy use of pesticides.
The California verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Edward Hardeman, was supposed to be a bellwether in the multi-district litigation that is being presided over by the Federal District court in San Francisco overseen by Chhabria.
, who teaches civil procedure at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, said multi-district litigation has two general purposes.
One is to consolidate nearly identical cases filed in different states in one court, which Yamamoto in an email called 鈥渁 kind of super joinder device.鈥 A second is to informally establish frameworks for resolving similar cases.
In , the court split the proceeding in two. First the jury had to decide whether Hardeman had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that exposure to Roundup was a substantial factor in causing his non-Hogkins lymphoma.
After finding Roundup was the likely cause, the jury next decided damages, which it said should amount to about $80 million.
Despite the verdict, Bayer maintains Roundup is safe. And there鈥檚 no indication that the company views the outcome as offering guidance that might lead it to settle other cases.
鈥淭his verdict does not change the weight of over four decades of extensive science and the conclusions of regulators worldwide that support the safety of our glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic,鈥 the company said in a statement.
The company noted the jury deliberated for four days before reaching its verdict that Roundup caused Hardeman鈥檚 cancer, which the company said shows the jury was divided over the scientific evidence.
In addition to the Sheppards’ case, Mackintosh represents another plaintiff, , in federal court. He also claims he got cancer from using Roundup.
And Mackintosh has filed a state suit on behalf of Bruce Pied, a New Jersey resident who operated a coffee and macadamia nut farm on the Big Island from 1982 to 2016. The suit alleges Pied developed cancer as a result of spraying Roundup on his farm.
Mackintosh said he is not surprised Monsanto is taking a hard line despite the verdict in the California case. He said the company鈥檚 lawyers have strongly opposed proposals to settle matters through mediation.
鈥淚f Roundup has trouble, then their whole agribusiness model has trouble,鈥 Mackintosh said.
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About the Author
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Stewart Yerton is the senior business writer for 天美视频. You can reach him at syerton@civilbeat.org.