Guardian of land in Bayer, in the US case of herbicides, accepts a reduced compensation

(Reuters) – The school gardener who won the Bayer AG jury trial (BAYGn.DEMonsanto's unit said it was ordered a court-ordered reduction in punitive damages following allegations that herbicides containing glyphosate may cause cancer.

The decision of Dewayne Johnson, who sued Monsanto in 2016, brings the total amount of the award to $ 78 million, against a jury verdict of $ 289 million on August 10, or $ 399 million in compensation. and $ 250 million in punitive damages.

The law firm Johnson said in a statement that he accepted the reduction "to hopefully reach a final resolution in his lifetime."

Judge Suzanne Bolanos of the California Superior Court in San Francisco, who supervised the trial, upheld the liability portion of the verdict, but ordered that the punitive damages be reduced to be in accordance with the law. Californian and federal.

Bayer denies allegations that glyphosate could cause cancer and said that he would appeal the decision, the verdict being unsupported by the evidence presented at trial.

The verdict, which marked the first such decision against Monsanto, wiped out 10% of the company's value and the shares have since lost about 30% of their value before the verdict.

The company, which faces more than 8,700 US lawsuits for glyphosate, says decades of scientific studies and its use in the real world have shown that glyphosate is safe for human use.

Regulators around the world, including the US Environmental Protection Agency, found that glyphosate was not a likely carcinogen to humans and approved the chemical, but the oncology unit of The World Health Organization in 2015 classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans".

The jury concluded that Roundup and Ranger Pro products containing glyphosate were the cause of Johnson's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and that the company did not warn the consumer and other risks.

Johnson could decide to accept the reduction or be the subject of a new trial for the punitive damages portion.

His lawyers announced on Wednesday that they would dispute the amount of damages on Bayer's appeal.