AgroPages-Bayer appeals California court's ruling on Roundup-Agricultural news

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CEO Werner Baumann at the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting of Bayer AG: “We made great progress – both operationally and strategically”

Bayer has signaled it will not go down quietly while its signature agricultural product, Roundup, is on trial in California.

The company, whose Monsanto subsidiary is facing more than 11,000 Roundup lawsuits nationwide, has already lost two cases in trial court - one state, one federal - and is set to begin its defense on Monday in another state court case involving a married couple who allege exposure to the weed-killer caused their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

But on Wednesday, it fired the first volley in its appeal of a state court verdict awarding $78.5 million to Dewayne Johnson, a school groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Keep in mind: Large jury awards often shrink. The jury in the Johnson case initially awarded him $289 million before the state judge knocked that down considerably. That judge, Suzanna Bolanos, was prepared to award Johnson zero in punitive damages before she changed her mind, a development that Bayer wants the appellate court to look at closely.