This Monday, is expected to have Bayer CEO Werner Baumann thick in his calendar painted. Whether this is also true for the rock legend Neil Young and his wife, the American actress Daryl Hannah, is not known. Both of them were travelled for the first process,, against Bayer, a subsidiary of Monsanto, to San Francisco, to support the plaintiff, the cancer-stricken janitor, Dewayne Johnson, in the fight against Evil. “We are in support of Dewayne Johnson and the many children playing on the school yards, on which he has a weed killer sprayed”, had Young dictated to the journalists in the blocks. In 2015, the Songwriter had dedicated his record, “the Monsanto Years” the struggle against the seed and pesticide manufacturer. Today, Monsanto is part of Bayer, in August, the US has been integrated into the German group. With 59 billion euros it was the most expensive Acquisition, has dared to a German group.

More than 9300 complaints the U.S. has against glyphosate

fear now, However, investors your money. Bayer In the United States with damage is covered for damages. More than 9,300 individual lawsuits, there are already, in the case of the balance sheet press conference on Wednesday, Bayer will publish a higher, number. The first process was lost, the share price sagged in the basement.

Dewayne Johnson has won the first lawsuit for damages against Monsanto. The case is now in appellate court.Photo: Josh Edelson/Reuters

The jury in the State Court ruled last August that the Monsanto-made glyphosate-containing herbicide “Roundup”, the Johnson School-sports fields had to be sprayed for his cancer of the lymph nodes is responsible for. Although the judge reduced later, the damages in the sum of 289 million to $ 78 million, but the verdict changed nothing. Now Bayer wants to prove in the court of appeal, what is the German traditional company has always stressed: that glyphosate is when used properly is harmless, and that there is not scientific doubt. A date for the appeal hearing yet.

On Monday, the next big process

starts an other opportunity to but now for legal Rehabilitation. This Monday, the next begins full-scale process. The plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman, 70 years old, has used glyphosate in his garden. Now he has cancer, such as the house of master Johnson, the Non-Hodgins might result in lymphoma. Hardeman suing for damages. However, the retiree is also ill with Hepatitis C, which could diminish his chances.

For Bayer this is an important process. Countless US law firms specialised in compensation claims against major corporations. With TV commercials and posters you are looking for alleged Victims of drugs, tobacco, or chemicals. Entice them with high damages without the plaintiff must do a lot. The lawyers before the Finance court costs and appraisers, but later princely reward, if money flows into the coffers of their clients. “In the past year there has been about twelve million in TV commercials for lawsuits,” says Mark Behrens from the US law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. The Washington lawyer advises Bayer, but is not concerned with the current glyphosate-suits.

The new case could determine the direction

The case Hardeman is different from the case of Dewayne Johnson. He is not held before the State Court but in Federal court in San Francisco. Before the Federal Courts, many lawsuits can be bundled in a “Multi-district” method, some of these cases may be selected as “Bellwether”cases. “You can then set the direction,” says Behrens. The case of Hardeman is one of them.
The Johnson procedure had taken Bayer untimely. “The process has taken place in a very sensitive Phase”, had the Bayer Board of management, Liam Condon explained a few months ago in the daily mirror Interview. “We were, on paper, have the owner of Monsanto, but because of the requirements of the U.S. Department of justice, we still had no influence on the Management and on the defence before the court”. Now this is different. And so, Bayer continues to defend glyphosate. It allows farmers to get a word in, explain the importance of the herbicide is to stubborn to interfere to eradicate peace, such as couch grass or foxtail. It refers to Sri Lanka, the glyphosate is banned, but then re-allowed after the valuable tea has been strangled by weeds.

environmentalists fight glyphosate

But the opponents are active. Environmentalists fight glyphosate for a long time. Because the herbicide penetrates the roots and all the plants kill, where the fabric lands, make them glyphosate for the monocultures on the fields and the insects die responsible. Your goal: no more renewal of the authorisation in the EU by 2022.

Monsanto as a “Ghostwriter” of studies?

And also the main line of defence of Bayer, the same thing all the admission authorities of glyphosate to keep for undenklich, critics such as the Greens-members of the European Parliament Maria Jozo. The German Federal Institute for risk assessment (BfR) have written off in its assessments of Monsanto, claims the Green. To the outrage of a Department head, Hensel Actually Bayer know nearly all well-known scientists. Only the International cancer research Agency of the world health organization (IARC) had classified in March 2015 glyphosate as a “likely carcinogen” – for the U.S. lawsuit industry winning the lottery. The IARC also holds red meat, hot beverages, or shift work, remains fond of the outside. And also, that the study is within the WHO have a minority opinion. “Three out of four WHO agencies are of the opinion that glyphosate is safe or not carcinogenic,” the Doctor says Liza Halcomb, who works for Bayer. And refers to the largest and most recent study of the US cancer research Institute with more than 50,000 users of plant protection products, was able to determine the 2018 no connection between glyphosate and cancer.

to have 15 million pages of Documents from Monsanto

ammunition for my U.S. plaintiffs ‘ lawyers, but also in Monsanto’s internals found. 15 million pages of Documents provided by the Bayer-subsidiary of the other side. Including the E-Mail, the Monsanto scientist Donna Farmer to a colleague. You could say that, “Roundup is not a carcinogen,” it says in it – a godsend for the plaintiff. That Farmer emphasized a little later in the same Mail, that you could make this statement, but for the active substance glyphosate and that therefore there was no reason to believe that Roundup causes cancer, is often ignored in the process.

Monsanto’s opponents: Neil Young has seed a plate against the US and pesticide manufacturers.Photo: Steve Pope/ REUTERS

The procedure is likely to drag on for years, more to come. In March, the process of the spouses Pilliod before the State Court in California, two proceedings in Monsanto’s hometown of St. Louis to follow. As you go out? Even Neil Young seems to be skeptical. “Too-big-to-case,/Too rich for jail”, he sings on “the Monsanto Years” – the big corporations are too big to fall, and too rich to go to jail. Bayer and his boss Werner Baumann is likely to make the more courage.