Judge reduces $2B jury award in Monsanto case to $86.7M

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California judge upheld a jury’s verdict that Monsanto’s widely used Roundup herbicide caused cancer in a Livermore couple, but reduced their damages from $2 billion to $86.7 million.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports an Alameda County judge ruled Thursday evidence supports the jury’s conclusion that Roundup was “a substantial factor” in causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in both Alva and Alberta Pilliod.

The judge said the evidence also supported the jury’s finding that Monsanto had known the herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous while the Pilliods were still using it and had failed to warn them.

But she said the punitive damages in this case were much higher than the constitutional limits set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Monsanto’s parent company, the German pharmaceutical firm Bayer AG, said it would appeal.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com