Groundskeeper’s Monsanto Verdict is Reduced to $78 Million
(The AEGIS Alliance) – A school groundskeeper from Northern California stated on Wednesday that he will accept a reduced verdict by the judge of $78 million against Monsanto after a jury found the corporations weed killer to be the cause of his cancer.
The attorney of DeWayne Johnson let the San Francisco Superior Court know that he won’t contest the decision by the judge to reduce the jury’s original award of $289 million.
It was possible for Johnson to demand a new trial.
In August, a jury unanimously decided that Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer was the cause of Johnson’s cancer. The 46 year old has less than three years to live according to his doctor’s testimony.
Robin McCall, a spokeswoman for Johnson, states his attorney disagrees with the settle reduction decision by the judge, but accepts the reduced amount, hoping to achieve “a final resolution within his lifetime.”
Daniel Childs, spokesman for Monsanto, didn’t return a phone call immediately. Previously he had said the company planned to appear any adverse verdict. Monsanto is facing 8,000 lawsuits that are similar to this across the country.
$250 million was awarded by the jury in punitive damages to Johnson after finding that St. Louis-based agribusiness Monsanto had purposely ignored evidence and warnings that its popular Roundup product is causing cancer, which includes Johnson’s lymphoma. But, there was a ruling earlier this month by Judge Suzanna Bolanos that it was too high, and she reduced the punitive damages to $39 million in order to match other damaged awarded by the jury. The reduced reward may have had to do with a champagne comment made by Johnson’s attorney.
Punitive damages are meant to punish companies which juries have determined purposely misbehaved, along with deterring others from operating similarly.
Featured Image: Plaintiff DeWayne Johnson on October 10th, 2018 (AP Photo/Paul Elias, File)
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
