A federal jury in San Francisco has found that a commonly used weed killer played a significant role in causing a California man's cancer, delivering another blow to the agrochemical giant Monsanto as it fights a similar decision reached last year.



In a verdict announced Tuesday, jurors ruled in favor of Edwin Hardeman, a 70-year-old Sonoma County man, finding that exposure to the herbicide Roundup was "a substantial factor" in the development of his cancer.



The case will now move on to a second phase where the jury will consider whether Monsanto, now Bayer, knew and concealed information about the potential harm its product could cause, and decide whether to award any damages to Hardeman.



"Mr. Hardeman is pleased that the jury unanimously held that Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Now we can focus on the evidence that Monsanto has not taken a responsible, objective approach to the safety of Roundup," Hardeman's attorneys, Aimee Wagstaff and Jennifer Moore, said in a joint statement. "We look forward to presenting this evidence to the jury and holding Monsanto accountable for its bad conduct."



It is the lead case of a multidistrict litigation involving more than 1,600 plaintiffs in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and the second lawsuit that has gone to trial alleging Monsanto’s glyphosate-based products cause cancer.



In August 2018, a jury in California state court awarded Dewayne Johnson, a man with a terminal illness who worked as a groundskeeper for a San Francisco Bay Area school district, nearly $290 million in damages. The verdict was later reduced to $78.5 million and is on appeal.

The outcome of Hardeman's case could be an indicator for how thousands of other cases will go. As of January, Monsanto was facing lawsuits from more than 11,000 plaintiffs claiming exposure to glyphosate-based products caused them harm, according to Bayer.

Michael Baum, of Baum Hedlund Law, one of the firms that represented Johnson, told BuzzFeed News in an email that while Tuesday's verdict won't necessarily set settlement standards for the other cases in the multidistrict litigation, it was "a huge win for all Roundup induced NHL claimants and a devastating loss for Bayer/Monsanto."



Hardeman was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in February 2015 after using Roundup to kill poison oak and other invasive plants on his 56-acre property for more than two decades.

The lawsuit alleges that Hardeman's long-term exposure to Roundup caused his cancer and that Monsanto knew or should have known of the risks and failed to provide adequate warnings about the harm associated with using the product.

Jennifer Moore, an attorney for the Sonoma County man, said Hardeman used Roundup regularly, spraying approximately 6,000 gallons of the herbicide over the course of 26 years.