Livermore Couple's $2.055B Award Against Monsanto Reduced To $87M

LIVERMORE, CA — A little over two months after it was determined that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide caused cancer in a Livermore couple, last week a judge cut the jury award to the local residents from $2.055 billion to $87 million.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith said Thursday that evidence supports the jury's conclusion that Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate, was a substantial factor in causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Alva and Alberta Pilliod, but the punitive damages were much higher than constitutional limits set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In May, a jury awarded the Pilliod's $1 billion each in punitive damages in addition to a combined $55 million in compensatory damages. Thursday Smith reduced punitive damages to $70 million and compensatory money to $17 million.

Alva, 77, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a sometimes-fatal form of lymph cancer, in 2011, and Alberta, 74, was diagnosed in 2015. They had used Roundup for more than 30 years to kill weeds on three properties they owned. Doctors say their cancers are in remission but could recur.

The reduction was not unexpected. Earlier this month, a federal judge reduced an $80 million award levied against Monsanto Co. to $25 million for Sonoma County resident Edwin Hardeman, 70, who claimed the company's Roundup weedkiller caused his non-Hodgkins' lymphoma.

Another state court case against Monsanto that also went to trial and resulted in a verdict against the agrochemical company saw a jury award later reduced: Last year, a San Francisco Superior Court jury awarded former school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson of Vallejo $289 million, which was later reduced by the trial judge to $78 million.

—Bay City News contributed to this report.