$78 Million Awarded to Plaintiff in Latest Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

Monsanto’s run of trial success among its Roundup lawsuits hit a significant snag last week. A Philadelphia jury sided with plaintiff William Melissen in his claims that the popular weed killer was responsible for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma, awarding him a $78 million verdict on Thursday.

Monsanto and its parent company Bayer had won 14 of its last 20 Roundup trials and had believed that a ruling on federal preemption from August would buoy it to further success. But the trial court denied Monsanto’s attempt to apply a previous verdict to this trial, and the jury found Melissen’s argument convincing.

“We disagree with the jury’s verdict, as it conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence and the consensus of regulatory bodies and their scientific assessments worldwide,” Bayer said in a statement after the trial loss. “We believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned.”

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Melissen was diagnosed with cancer after using Roundup regularly for decades. The weed killer’s possible connection to cancer has been debated for years, with the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying its active ingredient glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen in 2015.

Monsanto is appealing Thursday’s ruling.

Plaintiffs’ Win Could Signal Positive News for Future Roundup Lawsuits

Melissen’s win comes on the heels of a strong few months for Monsanto. It had won a similar trial in Philadelphia in September, and also had a previous win upheld by an appeals court.

Most significant of all, the company earned a win in August from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Schaffner v. Monsanto. The court ruled that an existing federal law could preempt failure-to-warn claims based on state laws. This means that lawsuits leaning on state laws to claim that Monsanto should have warned about cancer risks would have a more difficult time succeeding, creating a major roadblock for some Roundup lawsuits.

The August ruling gave Monsanto a sizable advantage to potentially lean on in future litigation. It also created a circuit split by contradicting previous rulings on federal preemption.

But the trial court refused to allow Monsanto to apply the Schaffner ruling to Melissen’s trial, and a similar decision has already been made for the upcoming Womack trial, which is next up among Roundup litigation and will go to trial later this month.

Bayer has pushed for the issue of federal preemption to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company hopes to receive a ruling that could halt much of the ongoing Roundup litigation.

But for the time being, lawsuits may continue to see success if the company cannot apply the Schaffner ruling.