Jury Awards Over $2 Billion to Roundup Lawsuit Plaintiff in Massive Verdict
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The latest Roundup lawsuit to go to trial has resulted in a historically large win for the plaintiff. John Barnes, who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using the weed killer for decades, was awarded nearly $2.1 billion by a Georgia jury on Friday.
It marks one of the largest Roundup verdicts to date. According to the law firm representing Barnes, it is the largest-ever single-plaintiff injury verdict in the state of Georgia.
Bayer, which purchased Roundup manufacturer Monsanto in 2018, said that it plans to appeal the verdict, which was the second win in court for a Roundup plaintiff in the last five months.
“We believe that we have strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned and the excessive and unconstitutional damage awards eliminated or reduced.” The company said in a statement. “The court previously granted the majority of the company’s motion for a directed verdict finding that the plaintiff had failed to prove most of their causes of action in this case.”
While Bayer agreed to a $10 billion settlement in 2020 for 75% of pending Roundup cases at the time, not all were covered. New cases have been filed in the years since and thousands of lawsuits remain active in both federal and state courts.
Bayer says that it has won 17 of the 25 most recent Roundup cases to go to trial, but cases over the last few months have yielded a wide range of results.
Since September, Roundup trials have ended with multiple plaintiff and defense wins and a mistrial.
Bayer Seeks End to Roundup Litigation
Friday’s major trial verdict comes as Bayer actively pursues different avenues to end the ongoing Roundup litigation.
According to Bayer’s 2024 annual report, the company has set aside nearly $6 billion for the litigation.
But it hopes to potentially end the ongoing lawsuits with a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. The company says it plans to get a Roundup case before the Supreme Court for the 2025–26 session.
“The company is currently evaluating the cases which would present the best opportunity for review,” Bayer said in a statement.
A Supreme Court case would likely be based on the issue of federal preemption. According to the Harvard Law Review, Bayer has argued that a federal law on pesticide regulation preempts, or overrules, any state laws on the issue.
This would mean that Roundup lawsuits could not rely on state laws to claim that Monsanto should have warned of cancer risks from its product. Courts have been split on this issue. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Bayer in September, conflicting with past rulings from the Ninth and Eleventh Courts.
Conflicting rulings from different circuit courts on the same issue creates a circuit split. The Supreme Court may review cases like this where separate federal appeals courts have handed down differing rulings.
Bayer has also encouraged state laws that could protect it from future Roundup lawsuits. These proposed laws, which are pending across multiple states, would shield pesticide companies from the types of claims that are usually the centerpiece of Roundup lawsuits.
Just last week, Georgia passed one such law that awaits the Governor’s signature.
But this method is not guaranteed to succeed. According to the Associated Press, Bayer attempted a similar strategy in 2024 in Idaho, Iowa and Missouri, but those bills failed to pass through their respective legislatures.