U.S. District Judge Reduces Roundup $80M Verdict To $25M

U.S. District Judge Reduces Roundup $80M Verdict To $25M

Introduction

On July 15, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria reduced the $80M Roundup verdict to $25 million against Bayer AG owned Monsanto after finding that punitive damages component of $75 million awarded to a plaintiff was unreasonably high.

On March 27, a federal jury awarded $5 million in compensatory and $75 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014. The judge stated that $5M as compensatory damages was sufficient as it supported the evidence presented at trial, and the $75 million as punitive damages component was constitutionally impermissible as it was 15 times the size of compensatory damages. The judge found that the punitive damages exceeded the constitutional limit and reduced the award to $20 million, with the total amounting to $25 million. Bayer still plans to appeal the verdict, and the plaintiff may appeal to Chhabria’s decision as he disagrees with any reduction in the jury verdict.

Bayer and its subsidiary, Monsanto, acquired a year ago, now face more than 15,000 Roundup lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is presiding over all the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2741; In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation) in the Northern District of California.