Bayer AG could win a new trial to defend its Roundup weed killer.
A California judge on Wednesday issued a tentative ruling for a new trial on the $250 million in punitive damages awarded to a groundskeeper, who sought to hold the Roundup maker liable for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
If finalized, Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos's ruling would grant a motion by Bayer arguing that sum wasn't justified and that the evidence didn't prove the company intended to harm the plaintiff. It isn't clear when the judge may finalize the ruling, issued ahead of a court hearing Wednesday.
The ruling calls into question the bulk of the $289 million judgment, the first in thousands of cases alleging that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Bayer's Roundup herbicide, causes cancer.
The jury verdict rocked Bayer weeks after the German company completed its takeover of Monsanto, the U.S. seed and pesticide giant that manufactures Roundup and crop seeds engineered to withstand the spray. Bayer's stock has fallen about 20% since the verdict, as investors priced in the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars more in court judgments ahead.
The plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, is likely to appeal the ruling if it is finalized. Representatives for Bayer and Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman PC, the law firm representing Mr. Johnson, had no immediate comment.