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DOSSIER – In this photo of June 28, 2011, bottles of Roundup herbicide, a product of Monsanto, are on display on a shelf of a store in St. Louis. The German drug and chemical company Bayer AG announced Monday, May 23, 2016 that she had made a $ 62 billion offer for the purchase of Monsanto, American specialist in crops and seeds. A northern California judge upheld a jury verdict that Monsanto's weed killer had caused a gardener's cancer, but reduced his reward from $ 287 million to $ 78 million. Judge Suzanne Bolanos of the Superior Court of San Francisco ruled Monday, October 22. (Jeff Roberson, File / Associated Press)
SAN FRANCISCO – While its stock is shrinking and many more lawsuits are coming, Monsanto promised Tuesday to pursue legal defense of its bestseller Rounded, a reputable herbicide, after a San Francisco judge confirmed the cancer verdict.
Legal experts have stated that this decision would be of little value in the courtrooms of the country where similar cases are pending, but that it will likely lead to further prosecution. Similar lawsuits have doubled from 4,000 to 8,000, after a San Francisco jury awarded $ 389 million to gardener DeWayne Johnson in August.
Monsanto's lawyers said they would fight Johnson and all the other lawsuits in the country alleging that the active ingredient in the world's most popular herbicide, glyphosate, was causing cancer. Johnson's lawsuit was the first lawsuit pending, and several others appear to be ready to start early next year.
Judge Suzanne Bolanos on Monday reduced the Jury Prize for Johnson to $ 78 million, while maintaining her verdict against Monsanto, based in St. Louis.
She reduced the punitive damages from $ 250 million to $ 39 million in a brief decision that contrasted sharply with a previous interim judgment stating that she doubted that Johnson would receive such compensation.
Bolanos had previously stated that Johnson's lawyers had not shown Monsanto executives that they acted maliciously, which was necessary to obtain punitive damages. She did not explain her change of mind. Several jurors wrote to the judge asking him to respect their verdict, but legal experts said that it should not have influenced the judge.
Monsanto's attorney said he would appeal the decision if Johnson accepted the sentence instead of seeking a new trial. It has until December 7 to decide.
Monsanto claims that many scientific studies and the US Environmental Protection Agency have established that glyphosate is safe.
"For this reason, we will continue to vigorously defend our glyphosate products," said company spokesman Daniel Childs.
Johnson's counsel argued that the World Health Organization in 2015 had concluded otherwise.
Legal experts claim that San Francisco's decision will have no immediate legal effect on other lawsuits, especially since they provide for months, if not years, of appeals. .
A decision of the San Francisco District Court is also not binding in any other court. The decisions of the California Courts of Appeal are binding on California courts, but not on the actions of state courts elsewhere.
"This is only one of the first pieces of a great legal puzzle," said David Levine, a law professor at the University of California at Hastings.
Levine said the company would not consider settling lawsuits as long as the number of rulings made by the courts of first instance would not be enough. "There are not enough data points to make a decision," he said.
The German company Bayer Ag bought the Monsanto company based in St. Louis in August for $ 63 billion. Its share price fell by 8.6% per share on Tuesday.
"It is clear that this topic is not going to go away," said Tuesday the UBS analyst Michael Leuchten in a note to investors.
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