A San Francisco jury ruled that the most popular weed killer in the world, Roundup, caused a former schoolteacher, husband, and father of two to become terminally ill with cancer.
Dewayne Johnson’s case was the first to go to trial, and was expedited, because doctor’s had said he wasn’t expected to live long. In California, plaintiffs near death can be granted a speedy trial. His victory is likely to set a precedent for thousands of other cases who claim the herbicide made by Monsanto causes a deadly, painful form of cancer known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The jury deliberated the case for three days at the San Francisco Superior Court before choosing to award Johnson $250 million in punitive damages and $39 million in compensatory damages. Johnson’s lawyer says he will live the rest of his life in “extreme comfort”, but this won’t change the fact that he will almost certainly lose his life, and very soon, leaving his two sons and wife.