A jury ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto to pay a combined US$2.055 billion (NZ$3 billion) to a couple claiming that the company's popular weed killer Roundup Ready caused their cancers. The state court jury in Oakland concluded that Monsanto's weed killer caused the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Alva Pilliod and Alberta Pilliod each contracted. Jurors awarded them each US$1b in punitive damages in addition to a combined US$55 million in compensatory damages. A federal jury in San Francisco ordered the weed killer maker in March to pay a Sonoma County man US$80m. He said the ratio between the US$2b in punitive damages and US$55m in compensatory damages is too high.

Source: Stuff May 13, 2019 22:31 UTC