A juror who supported the $80 million award to a plaintiff against Bayer acquired Monsanto came forward to defend the panel’s decision. The defendant told a California federal judge that an unfair trial led to its $80M loss in Roundup bellwether trial stating that the juror, who recently wrote a letter urging the judge to preserve the award, was seen hugging the plaintiff at a post-trial hearing.
The defendant stated that Juror #5 should not have been selected as she showed a bias behavior against them before the trial. According to the letter posted on the court’s website on July 4, the juror insisted the damage awards “were no accident” and reflected the jury's meticulous planning. The juror also made a note that higher punitive damages were sometimes permitted in extraordinary cases.
The plaintiff used Roundup for more than 30 years and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2014. In March the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, awarded plaintiff with $5M in compensation and $75M in punitive damages. The defendant denied glyphosate caused cancer and insisted the jury’s decision was unwarranted.
Bayer and its Monsanto subsidiary, 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.
