A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday slashed a $2.25 billion verdict awarded to a cancer patient who claimed Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup contributed to his lymphoma, reducing the jury’s 10-figure damages award to $404 million after the Bayer AG subsidiary argued that the initial award was “unconstitutionally excessive.”
In a one-page order, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Susan I. Schulman scrapped the $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages initially awarded to plaintiff John McKivison of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Instead, the judge awarded McKivison $50 million in compensatory damages and $350 million in punitive damages, while adding another $4 million to the award in “delay damages.”
The weekslong trial, which concluded in January, is the latest bellwether case to go to trial in Philadelphia’s mass tort over Monsanto’s controversial weed killer, which has been the target of more than 100,000 personal injury claims in recent years over its active ingredient’s alleged links to cancer. The jury’s $2.25 billion verdict followed separate $3.5 million and $175 million jury verdicts against Monsanto. A fourth Roundup trial resulted in a verdict in favor of Monsanto.
