In February 2015, plaintiff Edwin Hardeman, 65, a landowner in Sonoma County, was diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer that starts in B lymphocytes, which are white blood cells that produce antibodies to help the immune system mount a response to infection. Prior to his diagnosis, Hardeman used Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his properties between 1986 and 2012. He claimed that glyphosate has been associated with causing NHL and that his exposure to the chemical in Roundup caused his cancer. Hardeman sued the manufacturer of Roundup, Monsanto Co. He alleged that Monsanto was negligent in the defective design of the product and in its failure to warn about the dangers of being exposed to glyphosate in its product. Hardeman’s complaint was coordinated with hundreds of other Monsanto/Roundup cancer cases from multiple districts (In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 3:16-md-02741-VC). Judge Vince Chhabria eventually selected Hardeman’s case, at plaintiff’s counsel’s request, to be the first case to go before a jury as a bellwether. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Monsanto knew or had reason to know that Roundup was defective and unsafe, especially when used in the form and manner provided by Monsanto. Counsel also contended that Monsanto failed to exercise ordinary care in the designing, researching, testing, manufacturing, marketing, supplying, promoting, packaging, selling, quality assurance, quality control and/or distribution of Roundup and that it knew or should have known that using Roundup created a high risk of unreasonable, dangerous side effects, including, but not limited to, the development of NHL. Plaintiff’s counsel further contended that Monsanto failed to sufficiently test, investigate or study its Roundup products. In addition, counsel contended that Monsanto failed to provide warnings or instructions regarding the full and complete risks of Roundup and its other glyphosate-containing products even though it knew or should have known of the unreasonable risks of harm associated with the use of and/or exposure to such products. Defense counsel denied Hardeman’s allegations, and argued that Roundup is safe and does not cause cancer, including NHL. Counsel contended that, based on scientific research spanning over four decades and the determinations of leading health regulators worldwide, glyphosate is not carcinogenic and Roundup can be used safely. Defense counsel noted that, in 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a monograph concluding that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, even though expert health authorities throughout the world, including the Environmental Protection Agency, concluded that glyphosate is not a carcinogen based on assessments of the available scientific evidence conducted before and after the publication of the IARC monograph., Hardeman was diagnosed with NHL in February 2015. Shortly thereafter, he went through six rounds of chemotherapy. The parties stipulated that Hardeman’s past economic loss totaled $200,967.10. Hardeman also sought noneconomic damages for his past and future pain and suffering. In addition, Hardeman sought recovery of punitive damages based on Monsanto’s alleged conduct of knowingly putting the product in the consumer market. Defense counsel argued that plaintiff’s counsel failed to address that 70 percent or more of NHL cases have no known cause and that Hardeman lived with hepatitis C, a well-established cause of the disease, as well as numerous other risk factors.