A California jury sided with Monsanto in a woman’s case alleging she got cancer after using Roundup, finding that the company wasn’t negligent in designing its weed killer, nor did it know that the product was dangerous or likely to be dangerous.
The jury rejected Donetta Stephens’ claims of negligence, failure to warn and design defect. Jurors found that Roundup hadn’t failed to perform safely, and Roundup didn’t have a potential cancer risk that was known or knowable in light of scientific and medical knowledge that was generally accepted at the time it was manufactured and sold.
Stephens used Roundup at some point before 2017. She began experiencing symptoms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that year, and was diagnosed with the disease that December.
It’s the second favorable jury verdict secured by Monsanto in cases alleging that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer. Juries in a number of earlier cases sided with plaintiffs.
Monsanto got its first win in a Roundup trial in October. In that case, Destiny Clark had alleged that glyphosate led to her son Ezra Clark’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But a Los Angeles County jury found that the child’s exposure to Roundup wasn’t a “substantial factor” that led to the disease.
LAW360: https://www.law360.com/articles/1447477/monsanto-snags-another-jury-victory-in-calif-roundup-trial