Cancer Victim Headed Back to the Stand

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( Transcript of today’s proceedings)

Plaintiff Edwin Hardeman took the stand today to offer more testimony in his lawsuit against Monsanto over claims his use of the company’s Roundup herbicide caused him to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Hardeman already testified in the first phase of the trial, which drew a unanimous jury verdict finding that Roundup was to blame for his cancer. His testimony today addressed the question of Monsanto’s liability and if the company should pay damages for the loss of his health.

Hardman’s attorneys are trying to convince jurors that Monsanto knew of the dangers of its products but actively worked to suppress that information through a variety of tactics, including pressuring regulators, ghostwriting scientific literature, and misleading consumers such as Hardeman with heavy marketing about the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides.

In the first phase of the trial, Judge Vince Chhabria sharply limited testimony about Hardeman’s medical treatments and the suffering he endured. In this phase, such testimony is allowed.

Jurors also heard from Mary Hardeman, Edwin’s wife, on Friday. In the first phase, which dealt only with evidence pertaining to whether or not Roundup caused Mr. Hardeman’s cancer,   the judge rebuked Hardeman’s attorney Aimee Wagstaff for even trying to introduce Mary Hardeman to jurors and for describing the couple’s courtship and long marriage.

Also taking the stand was plaintiff’s expert witness Chadi Nabhan,   chief medical officer for Cardinal Health in Chicago.

The first witness Friday was Monsanto toxicologist Donna Farmer, whose testimony was  presented via video. Hardeman’s attorneys started her testimony on Wednesday. There was no court held Thursday.

Next week, Hardeman’s attorneys plan to play video testimony of former Monsanto Chairman and CEO Hugh Grant.

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