SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a $25 million award against agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. in a lawsuit that alleged a California man developed cancer from exposure to its best-selling weed killer, Roundup.
In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Monsanto’s appeal of punitive damages awarded in 2019 by a San Francisco jury.
The jurors found that Edwin Hardeman proved Roundup’s design was defective, it lacked sufficient cancer warnings and its manufacturer was negligent. They initially awarded Hardeman more than $80 million in damages, but a judge later reduced the punitive portion of the award, bringing the total to around $25 million.
Hardeman blamed his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on decades of using Roundup products to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his San Francisco Bay Area property. The appellate court ruling said evidence from the case supported a conclusion that Monsanto acted with “indifference to or a reckless disregard of the health or safety of others” and thus was liable for punitive damages.