California man awarded $80 million in damages in Roundup cancer trial

A jury awarded $80 million in damages yesterday to a California man who claimed that the weedkiller Roundup caused his cancer in a case that could have an impact on hundreds of similar lawsuits Roundup-maker Monsanto is facing. The six-person jury found that Edwin Hardeman, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015, proved that Roundup’s design was defective, it lacked sufficient cancer warnings, and that Monsanto was negligent. Another California jury in August found that Roundup was responsible for another man’s cancer and awarded him nearly $300 million in damages, an amount that was ultimately reduced to $78 million. Bayer, which owns Monsanto, said in a statement that it plans to appeal the most recent verdict and is already challenging the August verdict.