(Reuters) -Bayer was ordered on Friday to pay $2.25 billion to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer from exposure to the company’s Roundup weedkiller, the man’s attorneys said.
A jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found that John McKivision’s non-Hodgkins lymphoma was the result of using Roundup for yard work at his house for a period of several years. The verdict includes $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages.
“The jury’s punitive damages award sends a clear message that this multi-national corporation needs top to bottom change,” Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, McKivision’s attorneys, said in a joint statement.
I don’t see how $2 billion to one person is what they need to be doing, but sure.
The jury has some say in what they have to pay. Sometimes they go higher than you would expect so that when it’s cut down by a judge they still get something.
It would be better to have something like a class action where they have to pay out $40 million each to hundreds of people rather than 10 people get ridiculous sums that are way more than they need and everyone else get nothing because the company went bankrupt after the first 10 settlements.
It was probably easier to prove this single one rather than finding enough people for a class action.
Yeah, but it still shouldn’t go to a single person. Better pay it as a fine to the state or distribute it to charities. Or, better yet pit the money into creating a foundation to help cancer victims.
Somewhere above the 10-100m$ range it loses any sort of compensatory purpose, both you and your eternal decendants could live off of just interest at that point and buy essentially anything.
No one ever actually gets paid out the full sum like this. I don’t disagree that there are things that could and maybe should be done with this kind of cash but in cases like this its not always easy to prove a causal link between whatever chemicals and whatever illness. Regardless of what is done with the money this still sets a precedent and others will have an easier time suing for damages.
Can the jury say anything they want or are there any limitations?
I am not a lawyer but from what I understand there are 2 levels of penalty, 1 that has some kind of basis like medical costs and then jury can add punitive on top.
I was very surprised this wasn’t a class action. Since what bayer did was so horrible that one person deserves 2 billion then they should be dissolved with all their money distributed to all their customers.
Agreed. I’m just wondering how this even works in practice. Bayer’s total assets are $125bn; If they poisoned ~1000 people, do they sell off all assets to pay the first 62 people and from the 63rd guy on they’re all shit out of luck?
Or is this like those rulings where they give a murderer 6 times life in prison + 327 years (and 3 death sentences)? America has a weird judicial system.
Pretty much that is how it works, yes. Most likely they’d try to pull a J&J and restructure where the debt is given to a subsidiary that then declares bankruptcy. Thankfully that strategy was rejected but they’re still plotting to declare bankruptcy somehow.
Fuck them, that’s why. Maybe they’ll do the right thing before The Cock of Justice slaps then in the face 10 times, next time.
The people actually responsible are laughing on their way to the bank right now.
And that’s why billion+ judgements should be the norm. And no, I don’t care about the precious shareholders.