April 11, 2019: Today, the Court of Appeals of Lyon has again said that Monsanto is responsible for Paul François‘ illnesses after having been intoxicated with Lasso herbicides. Paul François is the chair of the French NGO Phyto-Victimes and a board member of Justice Pesticides. We are very pleased of this 3rd court decision that again decides that Monsanto is guilty. We hope that it will be an incentive for other victims all over the world to go after the companies that make them (and the planet) sick. Below is the press release of our partner Phyto-Victimes.

Background

In April 2004, Paul François inhaled vapors of the Monsanto herbicide Lasso. He was subsequently subject to repeated comas, violent headaches, fainting, and was hospitalized for months, without doctors being able to establish a link between his health problems and the intoxication at the time. It is only thanks to the courageous support of his wife, his relatives, and several scientists that this could happen later on.

Today, Paul François still suffers from serious neurological disorders (headaches, fainting, regular admissions to hospital …) that regularly prevent him from getting up, working and living normally.

The long road to justice

In 2007, along with launching a procedure for the recognition of occupational disease, Paul François and Maître François Lafforgue, his lawyer (Teissonnière-Topaloff-Lafforgue-Andreu & Associés), filed a complaint against the US firm for « insufficient labelling information and breach of duty of care ». After winning the case before the District Court (February 2012) and the Court of Appeal of Lyon (September 2015), the French Supreme Court (“Cour de Cassation”) overturned the latter judgment on the ground that the legal foundation should be the “liability arising from defective products” rather than the common law liability. The high court then referred the case back to the Court of Appeal of Lyon – this time with a different composition – which has just confirmed the responsibility of Monsanto.

Not yet a victory

Despite this third conviction of the firm, the fight is not over. Indeed, Monsanto can still appeal against that decision.

Moreover, by refusing to conclude on a compensation, Monsanto has forced the Court of Appeal to refer the matter to the District Court of Lyon, thereby further delaying any compensation for Paul François. Playing for time, by using every possible recourse, is Monsanto systematic strategy. Paul François therefore calls for his case to be transferred as soon as possible, so that the procedure can come to an end.

To support his struggle against Monsanto, Paul François has launched a crowdfunding call that has already garnered hundreds of thousands of donations. We invite everyone to help him in his procedure: https://www.okpal.com/fairecondamnermonsanto/#/