The judge found the proposal unreasonable and said it serves Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018, while Roundup users were changing.
A U.S. judge rejected Bayer’s $ 2 billion proposed class action lawsuit to settle future lawsuits alleging that herpes roundup causes cancer, and said in an order Wednesday that parts of the plan they were “clearly unreasonable.”
U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said the proposal “would achieve a lot for Monsanto,” which Bayer acquired for $ 63 billion in 2018 and “would achieve much less for users of San Francisco.” Roundup “are currently healthy.
The agreement would have stopped litigation linking Roundup to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) for four years and would have barred Roundup users from seeking punitive damages once the litigation break expired.
In return, users could opt for free medical examinations and compensations if they were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The proposed collective agreement was aimed at claims from people who have been exposed to the herbicide and who become ill in the future.
Separately, Bayer has pledged up to $ 9.6 billion to resolve ongoing claims of people blaming glyphosate (Roundup’s main active ingredient) for an existing disease. The company’s chief executive told analysts this month that 90,000 existing claims have been resolved and 30,000 are still being negotiated.
The company has said decades of studies have shown that Roundup and glyphosate are safe for human use. Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s decision.
“No closing”
Bayer has been criticized by consumer advocates for combating efforts to add a warning label to Roundup or remove it from the herbicide market, which it dominates along with other glyphosate products.
Chhabria had suggested that a warning label could provide a way to avoid future lawsuits, which are based on the theory that Bayer did not warn consumers of Roundup’s link to cancer.
Bayer has called the proposed class action resolution one of the “basic blocs” to “close” the Roundup litigation.
Leslie Brueckner, a Public Justice attorney who opposed the proposal, considered the sentence important to public health and said the risk of substantial punitive damages could force Bayer to change.
Chhabria’s ruling meant the company faced continued lawsuits, he said.
“So long as Roundup stays on the market, Bayer will continue to be sued by Roundup victims who get NHL,” Brueckner said. “That means there is no closure.”
The four-year plan would have grouped millions of residential users and farm workers into a class and provided them with medical examinations and up to $ 200,000 if they were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Chhabria’s six-page order questioned the value of offering medical exams, given the 10- to 15-year lag time between exposure and the potential onset of cancer symptoms.
He also said most claimants could expect compensation of $ 60,000 or less and that no compensation may be available after the plan expires.
Class attorneys said at last week’s hearing that Bayer could extend the deal and provide additional compensation.
The judge also questioned how healthy Roundup users could be properly notified of a solution that would bind them in the future if they developed NHL.
“Mere modifications cannot save the deal,” Chhabria said.
