PHILADELPHIA – The manufacturers of weed killer product Roundup are seeking to overturn a $175 million verdict reached in a Philadelphia court, the first local result in a trial series featuring the product, because they say the presiding judge’s instructions unfairly swayed the jury into voting for the plaintiffs.
Attorneys for plaintiffs Ernest Caranci, an 83-year-old retired restaurateur, and his wife Carmela Caranci, had argued that more than 20 years of regular use of Roundup, a chemical herbicide containing glyphosate, caused Ernest to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The couple then filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas in June 2021, versus Monsanto Company, Bayer AG (which acquired Monsanto in 2018) and the hardware stores where Ernest purchased Roundup – though by the time the case saw the courtroom for trial, all defendants had been dismissed from the case with the exception of Monsanto.
With the jury slated at 10-2, the minimum majority needed for a civil court verdict under Pennsylvania state law, in favor of the plaintiffs, the verdict amount consisted $25 million in compensatory damages and a whopping $150 million in punitive damages, against Monsanto.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge James C. Crumlish III presided over the action.
R. Brent Wisner of Wisner Baum, who had previously helped notch a $2 billion verdict against Monsanto in 2019, hailed the verdict as justice for the plaintiffs and a reckoning for the company.
“It’s a tremendous result. This case has always been about the science, and this new verdict puts a huge exclamation point on that fact. It’s about time for Monsanto to finally, once and for all, pull this product off the market and negotiate a global settlement. It’s time to bring an end to the glyphosate chapter in our country,” Wisner said.
In a statement, a Bayer spokesperson said the company disagreed with the verdict and felt “confident we can get this unfounded verdict overturned, and the excessive damage awards reduced through our appeal.”
According to Bayer, Roundup and its main component glyphosate are safe for use.
UPDATE
In a Nov. 6 motion for post-trial relief, in the form of a new trial, the defendants stated they had learned from a juror after the trial had concluded, that the jury had previously been divided 9-3 and had communicated a question to Crumlish on how to proceed.
Through his clerk, Crumlish replied that the jury would need to return the following week for further deliberations, if they could not reach at least 10 votes. According to the defense motion, the juror source added that fellow members of the jury were frustrated at the thought of more deliberations, and that jurors who either supported Bayer or who hadn’t made up their mind decided to vote for the plaintiffs to avoid additional deliberations.
Bayer termed Crumlish’s jury instruction as “highly coercive” and requested that a three-judge panel, which would not include Crumlish, review its post-trial motion – which also sought to overturn the punitive damages award.
In a joint reply statement, plaintiff counsel members Thomas R. Kline of Kline & Specter and Jason Itkin of Arnold & Itkin said, “We believe that Monsanto’s scorched earth trial tactics which includes attacks upon the judge, the jury, and integrity of the legal process will fail.”
Monsanto had won nine consecutive trials over use of its Roundup product, but that streak was snapped on Oct. 20 by a $1.25 million jury verdict for plaintiff John Durnell in a St. Louis courtroom.
Another similar case in San Diego, was decided in favor of plaintiff Mike Dennis for $332 million.
While Bayer settled the vast majority of Roundup-based lawsuit against it in 2020 for $10.9 billion, almost 40,000 such cases against the company remain to be decided.
The second trial in Philadelphia’s mass tort program from Roundup is currently underway.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 210602213
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com