Judge reduces Sonoma County man's $80 million award in Monsanto Roundup cancer case

A judge lowered a jury's damage award from $80 million to $25 million for a Sonoma County cancer victim who used Monsanto's Roundup weed-killer.|
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO - A U.S. judge lowered a jury's damage award from $80 million to $25 million for a Sonoma County cancer victim who used Monsanto's Roundup weed-killer.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Monday that U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said he was required to reduce the punitive damage award because it went beyond constitutional limits set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In March, a jury found that glyphosate was a likely cause of 70-year-old Edwin Hardeman's diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Jurors awarded him $200,000 for economic losses, $3 million for past pain and suffering, another $2 million for emotional distress in his future years, and $75 million in punitive damages. Hardeman's cancer is in remission.

Chhabria refused Friday to overturn the jury's verdict that Monsanto's product was a likely cause of Hardeman's cancer.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com

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