Bayer Has Better Odds of Winning Latest Roundup Trial

Bayer AG went to trial Thursday over a California woman’s claims the company’s best-selling Roundup weedkiller caused her cancer in what could be the German conglomerate’s best shot at winning a case after three straight losses averaging almost $50 million in damages for each consumer.

Lawyers for Donnetta Stephens began laying out their claims to a jury that the 70-year-old woman developed non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after using Roundup for more than 30 years in her yard. It’s the first case against Bayer’s Monsanto unit to come to trial in more than two years after Covid-19 upended court schedules. Bayer’s attorneys were slated to make their opening arguments in state court in San Bernardino after Stephens’ team finished.

Before the trial started, Bayer’s lawyers persuaded California Superior Court Judge Gilbert Ochoa to throw out Stephens’ claims that the company hid Roundup’s health risks, which may make it easier for the manufacturer to win the case, said Richard Ausness, a University of Kentucky law professor who teaches about mass injury suits.

“Failure to warn in these product-liability cases is usually the strongest claim, so if that’s out, Bayer definitely has a better chance of winning the case,” Ausness said in an interview. “Sounds like they could really use a win.”

Bayer shares rose 3% early Friday in Frankfurt trading. Company spokeswoman Carolyn Nagle said the pretrial ruling “cites the complete, up-to-date regulatory record on the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides.”