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A California jury on Friday found Monsanto liable in a lawsuit filed by a school groundskeeper who said the company’s weedkillers, including Roundup, caused his cancer. The company was ordered pay $289 million in damages. The case of the groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, 46, was the first lawsuit to go to trial alleging that Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers cause cancer. Monsanto, a unit of the German conglomerate Bayer following a $62.5 billion acquisition, faces more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States. (8/10)

"I'm glad to be here to be able to help in a cause that's way bigger than me," Dewayne Johnson said at a news conference Friday after the verdict was announced. Johnson, 46, alleges that heavy contact with the herbicide caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The state Superior Court jury agreed that Roundup contributed to Johnson's cancer and Monsanto should have provided a label warning of the potential health hazard. (Elias, 8/11)

The jury said that the packaging of the product should have indicated the risks of using it. The Environmental Protection Agency says Roundup is safe to use if label directions are followed properly, though the World Health Organization has classified the product’s active ingredient as a “probable human carcinogen.” (Anapol, 8/11)

Monsanto said it would appeal. Punitive damages, especially those many times higher than the compensatory awards, are often reduced by the trial judge or reversed on appeal. “We are sympathetic to Mr. Johnson and his family,” Monsanto vice president Scott Partridge said in a statement. However, he said numerous scientific studies and health authorities in the U.S. and other countries found that glyphosate didn’t cause cancer. (Armental, 8/10)