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PUNITIVE DAMAGES: How Much Is Too Much?

11/1/18

By: Rebecca Smith
On August 10, 2018, in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial, a jury awarded Dewayne Johnson a total of $289 million dollars. On Monday, October 22, 2018, a San Francisco Superior Court Judge refused to overturn the jury verdict, however, ruled that if plaintiff would accept a reduction in the punitive damages from $250 million to $39 million she would deny Monsanto’s Motion for New Trial. On Friday, October 26, 2018, attorneys for Plaintiff Johnson accepted the trial court’s reduction of the punitive damage, reducing the total verdict to Mr. Johnson from $289 million to $78 million.
This case involved the trial of design defect and failure to warn claims asserted by Dewayne Johnson alleging that his exposure to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (Roundup) developed by Monsanto caused him to develop non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. At trial, the jury was asked to resolve the complex question of whether plaintiff’s exposure to Roundup caused his Lymphoma, to which the jury responded affirmatively. Monsanto challenged that determination in post-trial motions, however, Judge Suzanne Bolanos denied such contest, finding there was no legal basis to disturb the jury’s determination that plaintiff’s exposure to Roundup was a substantial factor in causing his Lymphoma. Judge Bolanos, however, did “disturb” the punitive damage award.
Monsanto had argued that there was no clear and convincing evidence of a specific managing agent authorizing or ratifying malicious conduct and accordingly that punitive damages should not be awarded. Judge Bolanos, however, indicated that when the entire organization is involved in acts that constitute malice, there is no danger a blameless corporation will be punished for bad acts of which it had no control. Further, she held that the jury could have concluded that Monsanto acted with malice by consciously disregarding a probable safety risk of Roundup and continuing to market and sell its products without a warning.
In addressing the amount of the punitive damages, Judge Bolanos began her disagreement with the jury. The award, she indicated, was extremely high for a single plaintiff and consisted largely of non-economic damages which the due process case law recognizes as a punitive element. Pointing to the prior U.S. Supreme Court decision of State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co. v. Campbell that “[p]unitive damages found to exceed the ceiling of what due process allows must be reduced,” Judge Bolanos ordered the ratio of compensatory damages to punitive damages be reduced to one to one.  Accordingly, the court held that regardless of the reprehensibility of Monsanto’s conduct, the constitutionally required punitive award could be no more than the compensatory damages award of $39 million.
It is unlikely that this case will end here. While the plaintiff has accepted the reduction in the punitive damages and accordingly, the reduced amount will be entered as a judgment, this does not preclude Monsanto from appealing the judgment. Further, should Monsanto appeal the judgment, plaintiff has reserved its right to appeal the reduction of punitive damages. This is a case well worth watching.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Rebecca Smith at rsmith@fmglaw.com.