{"id":24340,"date":"2021-08-10T14:33:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T12:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=24340"},"modified":"2021-08-31T15:21:20","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T13:21:20","slug":"appeals-court-rejects-bayer-bid-to-overturn-roundup-trial-loss-cites-monsanto-reckless-disregard-for-consumer-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/appeals-court-rejects-bayer-bid-to-overturn-roundup-trial-loss-cites-monsanto-reckless-disregard-for-consumer-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court rejects Bayer bid to overturn Roundup trial loss; cites Monsanto \u201creckless disregard\u201d for consumer safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carey Gillam – USRTK, 9 August 2021 | Source<\/a><\/p>\n

Monsanto owner Bayer AG has lost another appeals court decision in the sweeping U.S. Roundup\u00a0 litigation, continuing to struggle to find a way out from under the crush of tens of thousands of claims alleging that Monsanto\u2019s glyphosate-based herbicides cause cancer.<\/p>\n

In a decision handed down<\/a> on Monday, the 1st Appellate District in the Court of Appeal for California rejected Monsanto\u2019s bid to overturn the trial loss in a case brought by husband-and-wife plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that substantial evidence supports the jury\u2019s verdicts,\u201d the court stated. \u201cMonsanto\u2019s conduct evidenced reckless disregard of the health and safety of the multitude of unsuspecting consumers it kept in the dark. This was not an isolated incident; Monsanto\u2019s conduct involved repeated actions over a period of many years motivated by the desire for sales and profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court specifically rejected the argument that federal law preempts such claims, an argument Bayer has told investors offers a potential path out of the litigation. Bayer has said<\/a> it hopes it can get the U.S. Supreme\u00a0 Court to agree with its preemption argument.<\/p>\n

In May 2019 a jury awarded the Pilliods<\/a> more than $2 billion in punitive and compensatory damages after lawyers for the couple argued they both developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma caused by their many years of using Roundup products.<\/p>\n

The trial judge lowered the combined award to $87 million.<\/p>\n

In appealing the loss, Monsanto argued not only that the Pilliod claims were preempted by federal law, but also that the jury\u2019s causation findings were flawed, the trial court should not have admitted certain evidence, and that \u201cthe verdict is the product of attorney misconduct.\u201d Monsanto also wanted the damage awards further slashed.<\/p>\n

Court slams company<\/h2>\n

In the appeals court decision, the court left the award unchanged, and said that Monsanto had not shown that federal law did preempt such claims as those made by the Pilliods. The court also said there was substantial evidence that Monsanto acted with a \u201cwillful and conscious disregard for the safety of others,\u201d supporting the awarding of punitive damages.<\/p>\n

The evidence showed that Monsanto \u201cfailed to conduct adequate studies on glyphosate and Roundup, thus impeding discouraging, or distorting scientific inquiry concerning glyphosate and Roundup,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n

The court also chastised Monsanto for not accurately presenting \u201call of the record evidence\u201d in making its appeal: \u201cBut rather than fairly stating all the relevant evidence, Monsanto ha<\/span>s made a lopsided presentation that relies primarily on the evidence in its<\/em> favor. This type of presentation may work for a jury, but it will not work for the Court of Appeal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The court added: \u201cThe trial described in Monsanto\u2019s opening brief bears little resemblance to the trial reflected in the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSummed up, the evidence shows Monsanto\u2019s intransigent unwillingness to inform the public about the carcinogenic dangers of a product it made abundantly available at hardware stores and garden shops across the country,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n

Another trial underway now<\/h2>\n

The Pilliod trial was the third against Monsanto. In the first trial, a unanimous jury awarded plaintiff Dewayne Johnson $289 million; <\/a>\u00a0the plaintiff in the\u00a0second trial was awarded $80 million.<\/a><\/p>\n

The fourth trial began last week. A jury of seven men and five women on Monday were hearing testimony in the case of Donnetta Stephens v. Monsanto in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County in California.\u00a0 Retired U.S. government scientist Christopher Portier, who has been an expert witness for the plaintiffs in prior Roundup trials, testified at length on Monday, reiterating previous testimony that there is clear scientific evidence showing glyphosate and glyphosate-based formulations such as Roundup can cause cancer.<\/p>\n

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, has settled several other cases that were scheduled to go to trial over the last two years. And in 2020, the company said it would pay roughly $11 billion to settle about 100,000 existing Roundup cancer claims. Late last month, Bayer said it would set aside another $4.5 billion toward Roundup litigation liability.<\/p>\n

Bayer also announced<\/a> it would stop selling Roundup, and other herbicides made with the active ingredient glyphosate, to U.S. consumers by 2023. But the company continues to sell the products for use by farmers and commercial applicators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carey Gillam – USRTK, 9 August 2021 | Source Monsanto owner Bayer AG has lost another appeals court decision in the sweeping U.S. Roundup\u00a0 litigation, continuing to struggle to find a way out from under the crush of tens of thousands of claims alleging that Monsanto\u2019s glyphosate-based herbicides cause cancer. In a decision handed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,50],"tags":[104,200],"class_list":["post-24340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-news","tag-poison-cartel","tag-usa","thematic_area-food-for-health","thematic_area-poison-free-future"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/26133876014_13ecf15855_b.jpg","wpml_translations":[{"language_code":"en","post_id":24340,"original":true}],"custom_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1630419235:2"],"_edit_last":["2"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_thumbnail_id":["24341"],"_wp_old_date":["2021-08-31"],"wpl_sidebar_option":["on"],"wpl_featured_image_post":["off"],"wpl_share_buttons":["on"],"_wpml_media_has_media":["1"]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9KkNM-6kA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24349,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24340\/revisions\/24349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}