Agri-biotech giant Monsanto introduced the world to Roundup weed killer in the 70’s. Decades later, plaintiffs claim Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is carcinogenic after they developed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Reports from EPA and FDA, as well as scientific community sentiment, all say the product is safe to use, but that hasn’t stopped the national litigation onslaught.
One such case awarded a groundskeeper who had been exposed to the product a $289 million dollar judgment in San Francisco just last month. After trial, the judge cut the damages to $78.6 million. That’s more than enough to encourage additional litigation and it has prompted SF-based U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria to orchestrate “bellwether trials” to streamline the process. Bellwether trials are common when major personal injury suits are filed around the country against a single corporate defendant. These trials create benchmarks for other similar plaintiffs and are intended to spur settlements and encourage tenuous plaintiffs to drop their cases altogether.
The Food Lawyers® Analysis: The staggering volume of over 900 US cases claiming Monsanto Roundup® caused plaintiffs’ cancer has controversially prompted SF Judge Chhabria to request cases be transferred to him from other jurisdictions for the aforementioned bellwether cases. Conventional wisdom (with which I agree) is that the most unfair place in the country for a corporate defendant jury trial is San Francisco. Last month’s judgment confirms that in spades, yet, that’s exactly what’s going to be repeated over and over with the Monsanto Roundup® bellwether trials. The negative effects of this litigation will generate more Roundup®-cancer suits against Monsanto, killing the Roundup brand like a weed. What’s being ignored is the resulting increased cost of the food supply from the loss of a safe and effective weed killer. In fact, some of our clients have stopped using it and are already feeling the pinch. And when Monsanto’s litigation money well has been drained, plaintiffs’ law firms will drive their Maseratis over to their next juicy target – maybe GMOs (which FDA says are safe), and the cycle will begin again, continuing to ratchet up the price of the world food supply.