Homeowner Roundup Lawsuit Filed Over Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis

Like millions of other consumers nationwide, a Maine homeowner indicates that he regularly used Roundup to control weeds around his property, believing it to be safe. However, in a recent product liability lawsuit filed against Monsanto, the man indicates that exposure to Roundup at his home resulted in the development of multiple myeloma. 

In a complaint (PDF) filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine on August 16, Michael Poulin indicates that Monsanto Company failed to warn him and other homeowners about the potential risk of cancer from Roundup and it’s active ingredient, glyphosate.

Poulin indicates that he used Roundup at his home starting in about 1986, and continued to spraying the weedkiller around his property and driveway until at least 2012.

In 2011, Poulin was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He did not connect the condition with his use of Roundup until the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) listed glyphosate as a probable cancer-causing agent in mid-2015, linking it to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other forms of cancer.

The lawsuit indicates that Monsanto intentionally concealed the Roundup risks for homeowners and misled the public about the herbicide’s safety for years.

“Monsanto was under a continuous duty to disclose to consumers, users and other persons coming into contact with its products, including Plaintiff, accurate safety information concerning its products and the risks associated with the use of and/or exposure to Roundup and glyphosate,” Poulin’s lawsuit states. “Instead, Monsanto knowingly, affirmatively, and actively concealed safety information concerning Roundup and glyphosate and the risks associated with the use of and/or exposure to its products.”

The case joins a growing number of similar Roundup lawsuits that have been filed against Monsanto nationwide in recent years, each involving similar allegations that both homeowners and occupational users of the weedkiller may have avoided a cancer diagnosis if the manufacturer had provided proper warnings and safety instructions.

While Monsanto has continued to maintain that their weed killer is safe, denying that there is any link between Roundup and cancer, plaintiffs allege that the company either knew or should have known about the risk, and that it failed to conduct adequate testing.

The case will be consolidated in the federal court system with hundreds of other claims, which are currently centralized for pretrial proceedings as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California.

Judge Chhabria previously determined that the Roundup litigation will be bifurcated, first addressing general causation about the link between the widely used weedkiller and non-Hodgkins lymphoma, as well as other forms of cancer, before addressing case-specific issues about whether Roundup caused cancer for each individual plaintiff.

Last month, Judge Chhabria ruled that plaintiffs had enough evidence to proceed to the bellwether trial phase, where a small group of cases will be selected to go before juries, to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

Following the coordinated MDL proceedings, if Roundup settlements or another resolution for the litigation is not reached, thousands of individual cases may ultimately be remanded back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for individual trial dates in the future.