If you have ever watched the Oscar-nominated movies The Insider and A Civil Action, you are well aware of how difficult it is for an individual to hold an entire corporation liable for injurious actions.
As the stories of Jan Schlictmann vs. the W.R. Grace chemical company and Jeffrey Wigand vs. the tobacco industry were based on real events, the obstacles that stand in the way of those seeking justice against money are all too true. Various big companies have tried anything from intimidating lawsuits, to even sanctioning anonymous death threats (in the case of Jeffrey Wigand) in order to silence whistleblowers and any community action. However, recently there has been a legal development that may perhaps establish a new precedent.
A precedent where anyone, regardless of power or status, can seek and obtain proper justice no matter what the odds. When Dewayne Johnson and his legal team sued the agricultural giant Monsanto on the grounds that Monsanto's weed killer Roundup caused Johnson to develop terminal cancer, they gained a victory so great that it may inspire scores of others with complaints against Monsanto and other industries to make their voices heard as well.
What happened before and during the case
Dewayne Johnson was a former groundskeeper for the San Francisco Bay Area school district and had reported using the Monsanto weedkiller Roundup 20-30 times per school year for gardening purposes.
At the age of 42, Johnson, a rash began to grow on Johnson's body that was later identified as a terminal case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since the International Agency for Research on Cancer had declared that glyphosate (a key ingredient in Roundup), was "probably carcinogenic to humans," Johnson and his legal team decided to sue Monsanto for damages in order to hold them accountable for selling an extremely dangerous, cancer-causing product.
Johnson also testified that he wore as much protective clothing as possible and even when he accidentally spilled the weedkiller on himself, he made sure to contact Monsanto's consumer hotline for help with cleaning himself up (they never replied to him). While Monsanto's attorneys testified that Johnson's cancer potentially takes years to develop, and may have even started before he began work as a groundskeeper at that school district, they were unable to refute the clear evidence that Roundup was likely carcinogenic, given that it contained the toxin Glyphosate.
Eventually, the jury of the Superior Court of California in San Francisco decided on a verdict that provided Johnson with approximately $39 million in compensatory damages (to try to make up for the effect of his cancer on him and his family) and about $250 million in punitive damages (payments to punish Monsanto).
What made this case different?
Given the highly sensitive and controversial nature of the Johnson's case, the most logical (albeit immoral) course of action for a large corporation like Monsanto would be to find someway to prevent Johnson from even getting his day in court. As previously stated, effective ways to accomplish this would be to perhaps threaten a lawsuit meant to silence Johnson, or even give him a small amount of money as a quick settlement to end matters without much negative publicity for Monsanto.
However, in California, patients who are determined by a doctor to be near death can have their legal cases expedited. In other words, Johnson was able to take his case to court before Monsanto could really try to counteract him because his terminal non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma made him eligible for faster legal proceedings.
What could happen now?
Last year, over 800 people were pursuing lawsuits against Monsanto because they believed that they had also contracted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from use of Roundup. Johnson's attorney says that he now represents "more than 2,000 non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma sufferers who used Roundup extensively."
Given how Dewayne Johnson's case went, it is probable that Monsanto will have to pay compensation many more times in the future. Corporations may finally be held responsible if they intentionally market harmful products. This accountability can only be benefit our society.