Couple’s $86M reward in Monsanto pesticide case stands

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s highest court rejected on Wednesday a challenge by Monsanto Co. to $86.2 million in damages to a couple who developed cancer after spraying the company’s Roundup weed-killer in their yards for 30 years. The state Supreme Court’s denial of review essentially upholds an appeals court’s ruling in favor of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. In August, that court found that Monsanto was at fault for knowingly marketing a product whose active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous. Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, has said it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use starting in 2023 and would replace the glyphosate with another ingredient subject to federal and state approval.