Judge Mulls Slashing $290 Mn Award In Roundup Cancer Case
Sumaira FH Published October 11, 2018 | 10:15 AM
San Francisco, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2018 ) :A judge on Wednesday was mulling whether to gut a jury order that Monsanto pay $290 million in damages for not warning a groundskeeper that its weed killer product Roundup might cause cancer.
In motions filed after the historic August verdict, Monsanto urged the judge to strip away the $250 million punitive portion of the damages, arguing that a new trial was justified.
Rival attorneys argued before California state Judge Suzanne Bolanos, who did not say when she would rule on the motions.
Jurors unanimously found that Monsanto acted with "malice" and that its weed killers Roundup and the professional grade version RangerPro contributed "substantially" to Dewayne Johnson's terminal illness.
The San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $250 million in punitive damages along with compensatory damages and other costs, bringing the total figure to nearly $290 million.
Johnson, a California groundskeeper diagnosed in 2014 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- a cancer that affects white blood cells -- says he repeatedly used a professional form of Roundup while working at a school in Benicia, California.
Monsanto attorney George Lombardi argued in court Wednesday that the evidence presented at trial did not support the jury verdict, and that an attorney for Johnson was wrong to urge jurors to teach the company a lesson.
"The message it sent to this jury was that you can look beyond what Mr Johnson's case is about and you can go out to things that you think society would like to hear about," Lombardi said in court.
Johnson sat nearby as his attorneys countered that jurors came to a lawful verdict based on what was presented at trial, and that Bolanos should deny Monsanto's motions.
"We have a jury that got it right and did it right," argued Johnson's attorney, Michael Miller.
"We need to respect the jury's verdict."
Recent Stories
Mired in crisis, Boeing reports another loss
Session Awarding Ceremony 2024 held at Cadet College Muzaffarabad
Austrian ski great Hirscher to make comeback under Dutch flag
Pakistan, Japan agrees to convene 'Economic Policy Dialogue'
FM Dar conveys deepest sympathy on torrential rains devastation in UAE
Spain PM Sanchez says weighing resignation after wife's graft probe
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 1st update
Long-lost Klimt portrait auctioned off for 30 mn euros
Osaka seals first win on clay since 2022 in Madrid
Earthquake jolts Karachi
Sindh minister orders operation after attack on police in Ghotki
TikTok to fight US ban law in courts
More Stories From World
-
Tough times for Argentine factories as consumers penny-pinch
7 minutes ago -
Use of alcohol and e-cigarettes among youth 'alarming': WHO
7 minutes ago -
Football: Italian Cup result
17 minutes ago -
Bird flu in humans? Experts see little risk
17 minutes ago -
Car giants vie for EV crown at Beijing's Auto China show
27 minutes ago -
Meta profits soar but costs of AI cause worry
27 minutes ago
-
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - collated
47 minutes ago -
Football: French Ligue 1 results - collated
47 minutes ago -
Meta sees profits soar in first quarter
47 minutes ago -
Battling mass tourism, Venice introduces day tickets
47 minutes ago -
Football: English Championship table
7 hours ago -
Time for 'democratic transition' in Venezuela: opposition candidate to AFP
7 hours ago