Ernie Caranci v. Monsanto
On 27 October 2023, a jury in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas ordered Bayer, which has owned Monsanto since 2018, to pay $175 million in compensation to Ernie Caranci, an 83-year-old restaurant owner who developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after several years of using Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide sold by Monsanto.
This decision, which follows a recent ruling by the County Court of Saint Louis in Missouri awarding 1.25 million in damages to a private individual who was also a victim of Roundup, further supports the existence of a causal link between the use of Roundup and the development of cancerous pathologies. According to his lawyer, Ernie Caranci was exposed to glyphosate for more than 400 hours while using the product unprotected in his garden. For Ernie Caranci, Monsanto has failed in its obligation to warn and inform about the carcinogenic risks of using their product.
The verdict includes $25 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages. Bayer has already announced its intention to appeal the verdict, stating that it is confident that it will be able to "overturn this unfounded verdict and reduce the excessive damages by appealing".