Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in Landmark Case

[G_j]

http://www.realfarmacy.com/monsanto-found-guilty-of-chemical-poisoning-in-landmark-case1/



A French farmer who can no longer perform his routine farming duties because of permanent pesticide injuries has had his day in court, literally, and the perpetrator of his injuries found guilty of chemical poisoning. The French court in Lyon ruled that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller formula, which contains the active ingredient alachlor, caused Paul Francois to develop lifelong neurological damage that manifests as persistent memory loss, headaches, and stuttering during speech.

Reports indicate that the 47-year-old farmer sued Monsanto back in 2004 after inhaling the Lasso product while cleaning his sprayer tank equipment. Not long after, Francois began experiencing lasting symptoms that prevented him from working, which he says were directly linked to exposure to the chemical. Since Lasso’s packaging did not bear adequate warnings about the dangers of exposure, Francois alleged at the time that Monsanto was essentially negligent in providing adequate protection for its customers.

To the surprise of many, the French court agreed with the claims and evidence presented before it, declaring earlier this year that “Monsanto is responsible for Paul Francois’ suffering after he inhaled the Lasso product … and must entirely compensate him.” The court is said to be seeking expert opinion on how to gauge Francois’ losses in order to determine precisely how much Monsanto will be required to compensate him in the case.

...more....

[marmar]

1. k/r

[djean111]

2. Hopefully, this is a chink in Monsanto's befouled and poisonous armor - I wonder if the French

judicial system operates like ours. I feel that if this had happened in the US (totally unlikely), Monsanto would just keep appealing until the farmer ran out of money.
Maybe a precedent will be set.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I had the same thoughts.

[Danascot]

10. Like Chevron is doing

to Ecuador.

[lark]

13. France is very different than America.

My daughter lived in France for awhile and I spent some time with her. France has the most family owned businesses of any country in the world, they don't have nearly the amount of huge companies as we do. Therefore, big business does not run things like it does here. Don't think many, if any at all, courts in America would side with a family farmer over Monsanto.

It's so much more civilized there, very few cars, little/no smog, way less plastic, excellent public transportation, free healthcare, good education system where teachers are treasured. Wish I could afford to live there.

[Dustlawyer]

33. We used to protect people from things like this. Now, with Tort reform we have such a

high burden to meet it is very expensive and risky. With Plaintiff attorneys handling these case on a contingent fee, meaning they do not get paid nor their expenses recouped unless they win and recover the money, it is very hard to find representation. Also, Americans have been brainwashed that any case filed is frivolous so you always have a few people on the jury predisposed to award nothing. The billionaires like Bob Perry in Texas have founded and supported "Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse" as well as backing far right wingers who are trying to prevent average people from being able to file suit. They misrepresent, or in some cases make up frivolous cases in letters to the editor to brainwash the public into thinking it is all "Jack Pot Justice." In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce funds newspapers that are free outside of courthouses that are designed to make potential and current jurors believe the Plaintiffs and their attorneys are frauds! There are 3 or 4 of these papers in the U.S. when the one in my town, Beaumont, Tx., first came out it had no ads for a whole year. They realized that to be believable they needed to sell ads. Their 1st edition here talked about all of the frivolous medical malpractice suits driving doctors out of Texas due to high insurance premiums. The other story was on bogus asbestos lawsuits. It just so happened that these 2 stories on the front page coincided with 2 trials starting that day, a medical malpractice case, and our firms case where the husband had died a horrible death from mesothelioma (Meso can only be caused by either very high doses of radiation, or asbestos). The employees of, "The South East Texas Record" (www.southeasttexasrecord.com) literally handed out the paper to the potential jurors while they sat outside their courtroom waiting to go into the courtroom. The paper has toned it down in the regular stories but in the editorial, opinions page, and the letters to the editor are totally out of line. One man was cited for criminal mischief and ordered to pay a dollar per paper when he was caught throwing them away.
What has become of this country when we do not prosecute a certain class of people, or large corporations and allow our jury system to be tampered with like this? This started with the McDonald's coffee case. National media reported it as if it was totally frivolous, "Woman spills hot coffee and gets millions from Mickey D's!" The truth was Mc Donald's raised the temp of their coffee so hot it caused severe burns. This made the coffee stay fresh longer and they got twice the coffee from the same amount of beans. They had confidentially settled several burn cases until Stella Liebeck came along. She spilled it in her crotch and almost died. They had to remove her labia and clitoris. The jury heard about the defendants prior settlements and awarded one day of McDonald's coffee sales, a little over 2 million. The Judge thought that excessive for a couchie and remitted it down to $900,000. Our system worked like it should except I don't think many women would think that was enough money in the end. Corporations own our Government and Judiciary. We need COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR) to correct this and many other things wrong in this country. Our politicians and Judges are bought and paid for. This should be the ONLY thing we should be talking about and fighting for! Getting our Representative government back would reverse the direction this country is headed. If you love this country you will fight, or at least spread the word, CCFR! (I apologize for the length but this really pisses me off)!

[MotherPetrie]

3. GOOD. K&R

[BrotherIvan]

5. Anyone willing to stand up to this evil company gets my admiration and thanks

Fuck Monsato!

[DCKit]

6. You can bet the U.S. State Dept is on the phone to France today...

Everyone at State.

[navarth]

7. So Soylent Corp. doesn't yet own France

That's good news.

[tblue]

9. I'm sure Monsanto's working on that

I never heard of a more evil entity.

[tecelote]

20. I agree

They're screwing with nature. Monsanto could destroy our food supply.

[chervilant]

30. Monsanto

is destroying our food supply.

[byeya]

8. What would happen in the US is that a civil jury would award an appropriate amount for the damages

suffered by the farmer and either the original judge, or a higher court, would slash the award by 90%.

I am hoping France has a less corrupt judicial system than we've often seen here.

[The Magistrate]

11. Exactly, Ma'am

The authority and grounds for these alterations to jury verdicts has never been quite clear to me.

[byeya]

12. It hasn't been clear to me either, sir, why a judge can over rule a jury which has deliberated

on the facts of the given case and decided on a monetary award for damages, including punitive if the judge instructed them that they should consider that.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Divine right of Kings. If you dig a bit you will find that in virtually every rule, system,

and institution we have that protects or establishes equality for "small people", there are provisions to simply overturn or dismiss outcomes or actions that are detrimental to the people that matter.

The founding of this nation was a great step in the right direction, but most of us believe that step was the end of the journey.

[byeya]

15. Yes, the USA had an incomplete revolution aimed mainly in entrenching the property holders at

the expense of everyone else. Did get rid of the fucking English though.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. That's a large part of how our Constitution came to be what it was. We fought the war and when the

rabble was subjected to the 18th century equivalent of austerity by the people that matter, they objected, strenuously. The Shays' Rebellion was one of the primary reasons for the 2nd amendment, and that's worked out really well, hasn't it?

I'm sure we could go on all day, but in the end it comes back to the way the game is rigged. The small people fight and die and the people that matter come in afterward and scoop up the proceeds of other's sacrifice.

[byeya]

19. As a sidelight, Gore Vidal wrote an essay on Shay's Rebellion that I found very informative.

Still available in one of his collected essays books.

[Egalitarian Thug]

21. I'm going to have to find that and put it on my reading list. I've always

liked his writing and most of his positions.

Thank you for the heads up.

[whathehell]

22. FDR's New Deal is considered a "socialist" revolution by the Right which tells us

that everything did not stop at the Revolution, not by a long shot.

Unfortunately, the Right is now in the process, with the assistance of a few traitorous dems,

of trying to undo everything in the New Deal.

[sulphurdunn]

32. Usually just enough

traitorous Dems for legislation proposing social justice. Odd isn't it?

[whathehell]

36. Yes

and rather suspicious, if you will.

[DhhD]

31. Money Laundering continued with Great Britain before, during and since the American Revolution,

especially the 1990s after R-Phil Gramm of Texas and a Republican Congress destroyed the Glass-Segal Act. British banks to include Britian's AIG, laundered bonds and bond groups. Gramm learned from the Savings and Loan Collapse of the mid 1980s. Several early 1990s Modernization Acts have lead to famine world wide.

We the People are still in the American Revolution with Britain and with those that did not want to leave the courtship of the King of England and his Bank of London.

[Hekate]

16. I am wondering at the extent to which Napoleonic Law applies in this kind of case

It may affect the outcome considerably.

I am not at all clear on the differences between the two -- am mostly aware at all because every so often my husband will state that this or that outcome on a case doesn't compute for me because it was tried in a European country on the continent as opposed to England, from which we derive our notions of Common Law. He's the MBA in the family.

I found a link, teacher (raises hand).

Most nations today follow one of two major legal traditions: common law or civil law. The common law tradition emerged in England during the Middle Ages and was applied within British colonies across continents. The civil law tradition developed in continental Europe at the same time and was applied in the colonies of European imperial powers such as Spain and Portugal. Civil law was also adopted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by countries formerly possessing distinctive legal traditions, such as Russia and Japan, that sought to reform their legal systems in order to gain economic and political power comparable to that of Western European nation-states.
To an American familiar with the terminology and process of our legal system, which is based on English common law, civil law systems can be unfamiliar and confusing. Even though England had many profound cultural ties to the rest of Europe in the Middle Ages, its legal tradition developed differently from that of the continent for a number of historical reasons, and one of the most fundamental ways in which they diverged was in the establishment of judicial decisions as the basis of common law and legislative decisions as the basis of civil law. Before looking at the history etc, etc.
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/robbins/CommonLawCivilLawTraditions.html

[colorado_ufo]

23. Footnote -

Louisiana still operates under Napoleonic Law, dating back before the Louisiana Purchase. (Colorado is my adopted home.)

[derby378]

24. And, on top of that...

...Monsanto would never admit any criminal negligence or wrongdoing. They'd simply pressure FOX News to silence any journalists who dared to peek behind the curtain.

[Segami]

17. K&R!

[Moostache]

25. Monsanto is evil incarnate and I hope they lose everything they have stolen.

I hate that company and the utter lack of principles that it represents. If there were an extra 0.2% in it for them, they would cut you in half, burn the remains and fertilize an unsuspecting farmer's fields just to take him in court and secure that extra 0.2%. I really hope that I live to see that bastardization of humanity crumble on itself.

[rdharma]

26. March against Monsanto 05-25-13

http://occupy-monsanto.com/march-against-monsanto-may-25-2013/

[lunasun]

27. Agent Orange 'nuf said about them- glad he won

[Cha]

28. Poor thing! Nothing is more important than our health.

So glad he won his lawsuit!

To the surprise of many, the French court agreed with the claims and evidence presented before it, declaring earlier this year that “Monsanto is responsible for Paul Francois’ suffering after he inhaled the Lasso product … and must entirely compensate him.” The court is said to be seeking expert opinion on how to gauge Francois’ losses in order to determine precisely how much Monsanto will be required to compensate him in the case.

“It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a (pesticide) maker is found guilty of such a poisoning,” said Francois Lafforgue, Paul Francois’ lawyer, to Reuters earlier in the year.

thank you, Gj

[heaven05]

29. a

couple of thousand expected in ann arbor this morning to march against monsanto modifieds. getting ready to limp along with them.

[hughee99]

35. I'm suprised Monsanto didn't sue the farmer for stealing their poison. n/t